One of my greatest mentors used to constantly remind me that every negative is also a positive, and every positive is also a negative. Might as well say yippee for yin yang, because this natural duality is inescapable.
Nowhere is this more evident than with respect to all of the electronic consumer devices that we have at our disposal. Buy a gizmo to resolve one of your predicaments, and sure as heck, you've thereby created a brand new predicament for yourself somewhere down the line.
Such is the case with the new home security systems that use continuous-loop video monitoring. I'm not talking about those old-style monitored systems that use contact sensors on doors and windows, motion detectors, glass breaks, etc. and third-party telephone alerts. I'm talking about the camera systems that pipe video to a DVR hidden somewhere in your house, and which also upload that video to the internet for live viewing and secure storage.
These systems have reached middle-class affordability status (turn-key "plug and play" systems from a vendor such as Lorex can be less than $2,000) and can significantly increase a homeowner's control over their property, in both active and passive senses. I was recently sitting in a client's office discussing business when all of a sudden his eyes darted to one of his computer monitors. He quickly punched a call into his cell phone and yelled, "Frank, there's a strange truck in your driveway!" A moment later he put the phone down, looked at me sheepishly, and said, "Sorry. That was my neighbor across the street. He was just having a new refrigerator delivered." My client had seen the truck drive up via his driveway cam, which fed live across the internet to his office computer.
But sometimes the situation is not as innocent as a delivery dude in an unmarked truck:
The trouble is, these systems don't just record the types of crimes they were developed to deter and/or help prosecute - they record EVERYTHING you do inside and around your house. Do you ever watch TV in your underwear, sprint naked across your kitchen to fetch clean towels from the laundry room before returning to your shower, or change your toddler's diaper in the livingroom? If you've installed a DVR system, it will all be recorded, along with everything your neighbors do as viewed from your yard. Furthermore, these machines can record that information for weeks at a time before looping. That's a lot of revealing information, and it creates privacy and information management challenges.
The specific tricky scenario I put before League City Chief of Police Mike Jez this morning was the following:
What happens if a homeowner's monitoring system records evidence of a crime on a nearby property or in the public right-of-way? How would the homeowner's privacy be protected if they volunteer video evidence to the police?
I asked this question because, of the material on that DVR, 99.9% will consist of underwear-lounging and naked sprints, and about 0.1% of it might turn out to be criminal evidence. And whereas a homeowner might feel that it's worth the invasion of privacy to proffer those recordings to help investigate and prosecute a crime committed against their own property, it becomes a much tougher cost-benefit analysis when someone else's property is involved.
Chief Jez's response to my question was as follows:
"The short answer to your question is that we, the police agency, wherever possible, would try to respect the privacy rights of the individual that is attempting to cooperate with the investigation. Beyond that I am afraid the courts are continuously creating new case law as it relates to technology."
In other words, it's not completely clear what would ultimately happen to all those not-so-Rockwellian scenes involving skivvies and baby booty. This is something to think about. Personally, I suspect that what might end up happening as we evolve into the future is that police departments everywhere start receiving highly-edited anonymous video clips which may not be admissable in a Court of Law due to their unverifiable origins, but which would still serve to point the investigators toward additional evidence that they COULD assemble without anyone's privacy getting violated in the process.
The usual disclaimers apply. I am not an attorney and none of this is legal advice; I'm just a blogger with a vivid imagination and a desire to minimize my chances of experiencing the type of devastating residential burglary that I had to deal with several years ago while living in another neighborhood.
Nowhere is this more evident than with respect to all of the electronic consumer devices that we have at our disposal. Buy a gizmo to resolve one of your predicaments, and sure as heck, you've thereby created a brand new predicament for yourself somewhere down the line.
Such is the case with the new home security systems that use continuous-loop video monitoring. I'm not talking about those old-style monitored systems that use contact sensors on doors and windows, motion detectors, glass breaks, etc. and third-party telephone alerts. I'm talking about the camera systems that pipe video to a DVR hidden somewhere in your house, and which also upload that video to the internet for live viewing and secure storage.
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| Do you feel like you're being watched? Because in an increasing number of homes and businesses, you ARE - in both visible and infrared spectra. |
But sometimes the situation is not as innocent as a delivery dude in an unmarked truck:
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| HPD photo published by Houston Chronicle. These systems are A-MAZING!! This is a photo of a serial burglary suspect obtained from a home monitoring system and released by police. You can read about this story here. These camera systems may not prevent the crimes from occurring, but what a terrific tool for prosecution. |
The specific tricky scenario I put before League City Chief of Police Mike Jez this morning was the following:
What happens if a homeowner's monitoring system records evidence of a crime on a nearby property or in the public right-of-way? How would the homeowner's privacy be protected if they volunteer video evidence to the police?
I asked this question because, of the material on that DVR, 99.9% will consist of underwear-lounging and naked sprints, and about 0.1% of it might turn out to be criminal evidence. And whereas a homeowner might feel that it's worth the invasion of privacy to proffer those recordings to help investigate and prosecute a crime committed against their own property, it becomes a much tougher cost-benefit analysis when someone else's property is involved.
Chief Jez's response to my question was as follows:
"The short answer to your question is that we, the police agency, wherever possible, would try to respect the privacy rights of the individual that is attempting to cooperate with the investigation. Beyond that I am afraid the courts are continuously creating new case law as it relates to technology."
In other words, it's not completely clear what would ultimately happen to all those not-so-Rockwellian scenes involving skivvies and baby booty. This is something to think about. Personally, I suspect that what might end up happening as we evolve into the future is that police departments everywhere start receiving highly-edited anonymous video clips which may not be admissable in a Court of Law due to their unverifiable origins, but which would still serve to point the investigators toward additional evidence that they COULD assemble without anyone's privacy getting violated in the process.
The usual disclaimers apply. I am not an attorney and none of this is legal advice; I'm just a blogger with a vivid imagination and a desire to minimize my chances of experiencing the type of devastating residential burglary that I had to deal with several years ago while living in another neighborhood.
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| Take my voice-of-experience word for it - this sucks!!! It's not the financial loss, it's the personal violation and all the time and energy required to put your lives back together. |
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