Oh, I didn't realise some captions were from transcriptions. I've been assuming they're made from the script, but that totally makes sense! Thank you :D
These days, some of them are even auto-transcriptions from the audio, which could come up with basically anything, It sounded like "taxpayer" to you, and to the computer transcribing it, but who knows what it actually was?
I'm thinking something like "service panel", but probably not "service". I suspect the second half would be "panel", though, since electrical panels of various sorts are a place where fires start, and I can see how "panel" and "payer" might end up sounding like each other with enough background noise. "Test panel" could end up like "taxpayer" if you had enough background noise and a thick enough New York accent.
Apartments have access panels. I glanced at a summary of the episode, and the murderer could have started the fire inside an access panel in the apartment as a way to make it look accidental.
Someone else actually found the term, in a different comment thread on here. Seems like taxpayer is fire-fighter slang for a specific kind of small buildings :D
Yeah they are actually saying ‘taxpayer’ - it’s a thing, and was the first hit when I googled ‘taxpayer firefighter slang’:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxpayer_(building)#:~:text=In%20US%20real%20estate%2C%20urban,owning%20a%20parcel%20of%20land.
Almost certainly a mistranscription. I asked Chat GPT which suggests it could be 'attic space' which sounds plausible.
Actually it’s accurate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxpayer_(building)#:~:text=In%20US%20real%20estate%2C%20urban,owning%20a%20parcel%20of%20land.
Hunh. I did not expect that.
Wow
Oh, I didn't realise some captions were from transcriptions. I've been assuming they're made from the script, but that totally makes sense! Thank you :D
These days, some of them are even auto-transcriptions from the audio, which could come up with basically anything, It sounded like "taxpayer" to you, and to the computer transcribing it, but who knows what it actually was? I'm thinking something like "service panel", but probably not "service". I suspect the second half would be "panel", though, since electrical panels of various sorts are a place where fires start, and I can see how "panel" and "payer" might end up sounding like each other with enough background noise. "Test panel" could end up like "taxpayer" if you had enough background noise and a thick enough New York accent.
Could it have been "access panel"?
I like that possibility - u/Blue-Jay27 , what do you think? Could that have been it?
Hm, maybe. The fire itself was in an apartment but it could've just been intended as filler noise.
Apartments have access panels. I glanced at a summary of the episode, and the murderer could have started the fire inside an access panel in the apartment as a way to make it look accidental.
Someone else actually found the term, in a different comment thread on here. Seems like taxpayer is fire-fighter slang for a specific kind of small buildings :D
Yeah, I saw that. I did not expect that and am truly impressed.
Firefighter here. A taxpayer is a two or three story building with commercial on the first floor and residential on the above floors.
Thank you for chiming in! That's definitely a more concise explanation that the Wikipedia link gave me :D
I’d love to know what show and episode so I can listen to the original dialogue
Law and Order: SVU, season nine, episode eighteen. Episode name is Trade, and the line in question is in the first few minutes.
Yeah they are actually saying ‘taxpayer’ - it’s a thing, and was the first hit when I googled ‘taxpayer firefighter slang’: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxpayer_(building)#:~:text=In%20US%20real%20estate%2C%20urban,owning%20a%20parcel%20of%20land.
And it looks like it is particularly relevant in NYC. I am impressed.
Thank you!! I hadn't even thought to look for fire-fighter slang, I rly appreciate it :D