Oregon Legal Research Blog
Second only to the “can I leave my kids home alone?” types of questions are the “can I tape record a conversation?” types of questions.
The Oregon Court of Appeals has a few more things to say about this subject. You can start with this Oregonian article:
“If an Oregon police officer is recording your traffic stop, it’s legal to make your own recording of the encounter,” by Aimee Green, The Oregonian, Monday, October 31, 2011, updated Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Or, read the case without passing “The O”
“Defendant appeals his conviction for unlawfully obtaining the contents of a communication, ORS 165.540(1)(c), assigning error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal. According to defendant, the statute proscribes obtaining a conversation only when not all of the participants have been specifically informed that the conversation is being obtained. It follows, defendant reasons, that he did not commit a crime by using his cell phone to record his conversation with a police officer during a traffic stop after the officer already had informed defendant that the conversation was being recorded. We reverse….
…
… In short, we conclude that Ou’s own act of informing defendant that their 14 conversation was being recorded was sufficient to satisfy the requirement of ORS 15 165.540(1)(c) that all participants to the conversation be “specifically informed” that the conversation was being obtained.3 16 Accordingly, the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal. Reversed.” [Link to full case.]