Trimess

Sunday, October 14, 2012

TRIMET TAKING A HARD LINE ON TAPING OF EMPLOYEES IN PUBLIC

I'm not completely convinced they are on legal footing with the following statement that appears on their internal website. We've seen thousands and thousands of conversations taped on public transit all across the country and not one case based upon Trimet's 'recording of conversations' new policy.


Trimet, which has a long history of very poor interpretations of law, is doing the same thing here. I'm sure this is all in response to Lane Jensen's somewhat controversial recordings.

Remember, there has to be an expectation of privacy for these laws to apply and on a public bus there is no expectation of privacy. I had done much research on this while employed at Trimet. If you're in a private meeting you cannot tape it unless everyone is informed. (of course you can do it but it remains your personal and private property, not to be shared). Public bus, ya right. Good luck Trimet taking something like this to court or getting a DA to prosecute a case on a bus using that statute.

We already know how hard the executives at Trimet attempt to keep as much as possible from the public, they sure don't like Lane running around catching employees doing questionable things and then making fools of themselves on video with audio.

Q: I’ve seen where there are people in the community taping operators’ conversations. Is that legal?
A: Filming and photography are permitted on a bus or train as long as they don’t interfere with transit operations or safety. However, it is a violation of Oregon Law for a person to “obtain or attempt to obtain the whole or any part of a conversation by means of any device, contrivance, machine or apparatus, whether electrical, mechanical, manual or otherwise, if not all participants in the conversations are specifically informed that their conversation is being obtained.” So in a nutshell, if they’re taping our conversation and you were not informed – they’re breaking the law. Have a question? Just Ask! Your question (and its answer) could be featured in Express Line and on TriNET.

1 comment:

The Chauffeur said...

Wait. This was never discussed before hand? So I am making waves at TriMet! Yipee!!