Can you hear me now?
Interim Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy has notified several community leaders, attorneys, doctors, clergy and groups, almost all of them black, that they were secretly taped by a nonsworn employee and another woman during the tenure of former Chief David Wray.
His attorney says Wray was unaware of any such tactics. But somebody had to authorize the taping.
Bellamy says he doesn't know why the tapes were made.
No, it probably wasn’t illegal, but the taping was innappropriate, unsettling and unseemly.
Comments (9)
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These actions remind me of a 20 plus year old case from Winston-Salem when the police did similar "tapings" of black leaders in the Bill McGee/Benton Convention Center episode. Things really don't change all that much.
Posted on April 21, 2006 6:41 PM
"Bellamy says he doesn't know why the tapes were made."
Really?
Did Bellamy say why he chose to release this information NOW?
Posted on April 21, 2006 9:57 PM
Bubba, I think it had something to do with one of taped people asking about the taping at an open meeting. The secret had come out and he decided to speak about it. I just wonder what would have happened if no one had asked - would we know about the tapings?
Posted on April 21, 2006 10:16 PM
Sue's right. Sandy Carmany gives a detailed account, from her perspective, of how and why the release of the information happened at her blog.
Also, according to comments Bellamy made to the News & Record, rumors already had been circulating about the recordings and he felt a need to address them.
Good call, as I see it.
Posted on April 22, 2006 9:26 AM
I agree that it was a good call to release the information, I just wish that the Council would be more up front with information rather than waiting until they are forced to do so.
Posted on April 22, 2006 11:27 AM
I appreciate the council's prickly position, but these unsteady drips of information are excruciating and not very constructive.
Posted on April 22, 2006 8:38 PM
And I wish the N&R would quit gving us unsteady drips from the purloined RMA report and divulge it in it's entirety.
How about practicing what you preach?
Posted on April 23, 2006 9:10 PM
I imagine part of the reason is that any new story on the report requires a considerable amount of additional reporting. But John Robinson is in a better position to answer that question than I.
Posted on April 24, 2006 9:02 AM
Nothing illegal is done when one party to a conversation, be it in person or on the phone or whatever, records said conversation.
Reporters do it, photographers do it via images, police do it in interviews and take pictures in public of lawbreakers.
Recording a conversation is merely an electronic form of notetaking. As long as one party is privy to the fact it's being recorded, there is nothing wrong with doing it.
The Greensboro PD should face no adverse action for electronic notetaking.
Posted on April 24, 2006 6:40 PM