Videotaping everything on your street.

[techs]

http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_4049782

The town is taking the lead to get angry residents talking about a neighbor who is videotaping people around Clark and Canal streets.

Residents complained that Paul Canon, who lives on Clark Street, was targeting minorities with his videotaping. They also accused police of singling out certain teens in the neighborhood.

The videotaping is not illegal, according to police.



Ok, what is happening is that this guy is seeing people coming an going at all hours of the day and night at two locations on his block. So he has set up a couple of video cameras to tape the block from both sides.
I live just a few blocks away and I see it too.
I am personally convinced that it is drug dealing. It fits the pattern and fits what I have seen when I lived in New York City.
Cars show up, park, people get out and go in a building and come out 10-15 minutes later. When this happens 20-40 times a day it is strongly suggestive of drug dealing.
Add to this a large number of drug arrests over the years on that block, including a fatal stabbing due to a drug deal gone wrong a few years ago.
What the article doesn't say is that this afternoon the police served a warrant and arrested a resident of the block for possesion of cocaine.

So what are people opinions on this?

 

[Genx87]

Are these people in public? If they are, what privacy are they expecting? It isnt like the guy is video-taping inside the house.

 

[newmachineoverlord]

People traveling down the street are in a public area which is perfectly legal to photograph and videotape, which is why photographers can legally sell all those pictures of celebrities on public beaches etc. Of course i personally find it irritating when the papparatzi follow me around taking pictures, but I am without legal recourse. There is no legal expectation of privacy in public places or on public property. (Which is why police shouldn't need a search warrant to search congressional offices or the oval office; these areas already belong to the government, not to the government officials. The argument that applies to school lockers should also apply to all government employee offices.)

Merely utilizing public roads or traveling to a location cannot and should not ever be used as evidence of a crime, nor should it be usable to acquire a search warrant. Unless these people are parking illegally these tapes are nothing more than boring home videos. The first amendment to the constitution guarantees the "right of the people peaceably to assemble" which includes "coming an going at all hours of the day and night." When you start finding syringes with trace quantities of illegal substances in their trash (which is public property according to the greenwood case) then you have something to show police, not before. Otherwise these sorts of tactics could be swiftly used to track and detain NRA members, or any other political group.

Of course videotaping public streets is a great way to catch traffic violations, running stop signs and speeding, and should be used more for this purpose imho. Motor vehicle crashes kill more people than war and terrorists combined.