I can't tell at this point whether you're actually ignorant or intentionally ignoring reality to suit your argument.
Mostly I come from a cultural and legal background significantly less fucked up than the USAs, so I tend towards errors from sheer disbelief in how fucked up the legal system is over there.
They don't need to tell her they're recording things. They're law enforcement. They record everything by default, and whether you know about it or not is irrelevant because they'll still use it against you if they need to.
Okay. So ? My main point was that even if the conversations were all recorded, which is never explicitly stated, they`re still easy to spin against the PRT. Releasing them is a double edged sword. It`s doubtful they would want to, especially as Taylor isn`t exactly a huge threat that msut be brought down at all costs.
You can try to fight against the evidence being submitted to court, but that doesn't stop it from happening, doesn't stop the law from otherwise using it against you, and isn't guaranteed to work anyway if the police can prove that they had a legitimate reason to record you.
Sounds like a matter for the courts rather than the PR circuit and contract negotiations here.
Like, say, as a precaution when dealing with an unknown potentially hostile cape for the first time, or to record details given by an inexperienced person who knocked out a bunch of people and can't explain how, or someone who was readily willing to divulge details in an interrogation room, or someone who was known to have unnecessarily harmed a large number of people.
Right, potentially hostile cape. That just sort of walks up and figuratively gushes over you and engages in conversation. Then discovers she did a whoopsie and does her level best to work with the authorities to undo the damage, despite having to deal with the master of tactlessness. That DOES just SCREAM 'potentially hostile'.
Pull the other one it`s got bells on.
Remember how powers are bullshit ? This sort of thing happens literally every day in Worm; parahumans inexperienced with their powers causing things they didn`t mean to. Now, how much provision there is under the law for those situations depends entirely on how grimderp that particular incarnation is, but at this point we don`t know.
Though I love how you yourself are spinning it for the PRT. That 'unnessecarily' could just as easily be replaced with 'unintentionally' and be just as true. Also, those people were intending to do her and others harm. How would you class that anyway ? 'Uninentional negligent excessive force' ? Teenagers make mistakes, y`know, and it`s not like Taylor is against becoming a Ward, where she can learn to use her powers more responsibly. She, Danny rather, just doesn`t want a shit deal here, and while the PRT no doubt prefers people who fold immediately they can still reach an amicable conclusion here rather than having another Ward that actively resents being one, which is in both parties interest.
End of the day my argument is that even if those tapes exist they will either remain unreleased, thus having little if any impact on the strength of Danny/Taylor and the PRT at the negotiation table, or their release is going to cause so many furious spins on either side that a storm of massive proportions may just be kicked loose, which the PRT certainly does not want to risk. Armsmaster is sore that his PR coop turned into a disaster, but the PRT in general ought to be more pissed at him than at Taylor here.
Or the PRT will play to type and try to use their big stick rather than just carrying it. Which seems like a spectacularily stupid idea considering how terrifyingly useful Taylors power is even if she can 'only' Manton limited transfer liquids within a radius around her.
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EDIT : Cape Names ! Depends on what her powers actually are. If it`s actual generation then 'Wellspring' is a nice, PR friendly name. If it`s transference, which is much less mindboggling on the 'reverse entropy' front then 'Pipeline' or 'Conduit'. Since she`s not actually a tinker, chemical and alchemical insinuations should be avoided.
you could probably skip it. I think its less exciting because there is not a lot of character interactions; and its hard to write: "Taylor gets X concessions that the plot demands" too excitingly.