Remember using mini tape recorders with mini tape cassettes

Remember using mini tape recorders with mini tape cassettes for recording investigative notes in the 1980s – 

There was a time in the US Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (CID) that CID Special Agents (SAs) experimented with the use of mini tape recorders that used mini recording tapes to document all investigative activity. 

Not sure how long the experiment lasted, but remembers using those little tape recorders at crime scenes for at least a year or so while in Germany.

Prior to and after the use of the mini tape recorders all SAs used note pads to record our daily investigative notes on. Our note pads with the information obtained during our day-to-day investigative activity scribbled on them were used to fill out our activity sheets, statements, and reports.

Trying to read what we had written (which in most instances amounted to a scribble worse than any doctors signature) in the dead of night, in the rain, the snow, the wind, the heat, the office, and the barracks was not an easy task.

The notes were supposed to be legible so anyone could read them if need be, not just so the SA who wrote the notes could read them in order to transcribe the information to the investigative file, activity record, or report.

Those note pads or books were retained in the case files they pertained to in case the investigators or others needed to refresh his or her memory on what was scribbled on the pad while obtaining information for their daily investigative activity placed in the case file.

One day SAs were scribbling in little note books and or on pads and the next we were dealing with tape recorders and tapes. There is always a learning curve, some SAs did not want to use the tape recorders and refused to do so if their boss allowed them not to use the recorders.  

The majority of us used the tape recorders and got to like the ease of recording and not writing down everything we needed for our investigative files.

At the time all CID offices still had Word Processing Centers (WPC) where we had at least five civilians typing reports and other investigative information from notes we provided, those WPC folks were able to transcribe the mini tapes for the SAs so there was a typed copy of what was on the mini cassettes.

When CID started using the mini recorders SAs were able to use a mini cassette tape, have it transcribed, verified by the SA, signed, and then the mini cassette tape was wiped clean and reused by the SAs in the field. This was a very good method of documenting investigative activities and was working well till the Staff Judge Advocate folks decided the transcribed notes form the mini cassettes were not the best evidence.

CID was instructed to keep the mini cassette tape with the original audio recording on it, not as evidence, but in the investigative case file along with the transcribed notes from the SA. This having to replace mini cassette tapes and not being able to reuse tapes sealed the end of the experiment after about two years since the mini cassettes cost more money than the US Army was willing to spend.

Do you remember what office you were in when you used mini tape recorders and mini recording tapes?