We were going into GameStop to reserve my copy of Batman: Arkham City (awesome!) when I saw a small business pickup truck double-parked in a handicap spot with no sticker. I have an axe to grind against jerks using handicap and new parent spots and I know a lot of other people do too, so I figured I'd help our community a bit by serving this jerk a ticket for using up some poor person's spot.
I knelt 10 ft. behind it and aimed my Droid camera at the pickup. Snap. I had it all in view - the license plate number, the painted white line outlining the parking spot (which his car was straddling) and the building behind it, not to mention the date/time stamp that would be imprinted on the file and the file info on any Windows PC. This equates to positive ID of the suspect, the misdemeanor in-progress and verified time and location of the incident.
So imagine my dismay when I called the police today for an e-mail address and was told my efforts were all for naught. I find this hard to swallow.
"How is my picture inadmissible?"
"Well with technology these days, anyone could Photoshop it."
"There are different columns in the File Properties window on PC's for when a file was created and when it was last modified."
"The time could be off; it could've been taken a year ago."
"There's a time and date stamp on the file that's synced to Google's world clock every day via the 3G connection on my phone, not to mention there are window ads in the GameStop behind his truck which were only issued in the last month or two."
"Well, we'd have to subpoena you in court if we even tried to give this guy a ticket."
"That's fine. I've got time."
"...Look, an officer has to do it in person. Next time you see it happen, give us a call and we'll get the nearest officer out there."
No wonder so many RLSH have aired their grievances about legal red tape to me. The Guilt feels like he's got a 0-2 count right now.
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