The value of recording police interrogations can hardly be stressed. Legal transcription service providers convert these recordings into accurate text documents, which are a valuable element in the trial process, especially for filing or fighting an appeal.
The state of Colorado now has a new law that requires the police to record interrogations. With this new legislation being signed into law in June, Colorado joins several other states in the US which also mandate the recoding of interrogations for certain offences. Most police departments in these states have voluntarily adopted the practice. Recording and transcribing interrogations helps in simplifying and streamlining the legal process.
Interrogations Transcription Process
Transcription companies offer their clients options for dictating interrogations such as digital recorder and toll-free telephone number. Recordings can even be submitted in analog format. If the recording is made on their dictation device, the client can upload the file on a secure FTP account from where the company will download it for transcription. For the convenience of their clients, reliable companies also accept recordings in various audio and video formats.
Established legal transcription outsourcing companies have skilled transcriptionists who are proficient in legal terminology and jargon and can deliver accurate interrogations transcription services in fast turnaround time. Depending upon client needs, they can provide verbatim transcription, which would include utterances like ‘uhs’ and ‘ums’ and non-verbatim transcription which excludes these and is a cleaner, edited version of the recording. Interrogations, of course, require verbatim transcription.
In addition to being accurate, consistent and quick, a professional legal transcription service provider would ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the data they are entrusted with. They are also focused on providing competitively priced solutions with considerable cost savings for their clients.
New Law on Interrogation Recording Welcomed
Legal analysts, law agencies, and concerned organizations have welcomed Colorado’s decision to record interrogations. Electronically recording the entirety of custodial interrogations in certain felony cases is expected to prove a safeguard against wrongful convictions arising out of false confession, which is responsible for about one quarter of the nation’s 342 wrongful convictions proven by DNA evidence.