Gotta love an episode in which our heroes casually conduct two, count 'em two, separate warrantless searches: undercover Benson going through closed desk drawers in the meatpacking company's offices, and Munch snooping around in the little old lady's home (good luck getting that typewriter you found into evidence, John). Add to that the idea that a videotape cassette (ask your grandparents, kids) could be destroyed by somebody stomping on it and breaking the plastic case, and this episode doesn't come off as being very flattering to the writers.
And... I'm getting *really* tired of the detectives' almost sociopathic devotion to assuming that anybody who might, maybe, possibly, could be the killer is by definition guilty as sin, and coming after them in the interrogation room like they're the KGB trying to get secrets out of a captured spy. It's a repetitive and extremely dumb meme that makes the characters that we're (I think) supposed to admire look like jackasses. (And do they ever, *ever* apologize to anyone for subjecting them to all that crap only to later have their alibi check out?)
And by the way, why does everybody willingly go "downtown" with them to experience the joy of being stuck in a small room with two aggressive mooks with Ph.D.'s in person-on-person psychological warfare? Why do we never seem to see the cops' "Okay, you're coming with us" met with "No, actually I'm not"?