Camera Spying Violated Fourth Amendment, Colorado Supreme Court Rules(forbes.com)
forbes.com
Camera Spying Violated Fourth Amendment, Colorado Supreme Court Rules
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2021/10/08/nonstop-hidden-camera-spying-violated-fourth-amendment-colorado-supreme-court-rules/
4 comments
This seems pretty open and shut. Drug dealer though he may be, we can't allow such a blatant invasion of privacy to set the standard. The dude had a 6 foot tall fence around his yard and the police think it's okay to put a camera up on a pole to surveil him without a warrant? And they did it around the clock for 3 months...
If I point a camera into my neighbor's yard and run it 24/7 for 3 months, I'm probably in deep doo-doo even if he has no fence at all. With a fence, I'd refer to Kyllo v. US, though that disturbingly was a 5-4 decision rather than 9-0 :(.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
Doesn't this rub pretty strongly against Florida v. Riley, which ruled overhead surveillance is legal as long as the viewer was somewhere a person could've reasonably been?
Interesting if this gets to the SCOTUS. Is it "reasonable" for your neighbor to film your backyard with a drone?
I think this is a different case, though. The police didn’t succeed or didn’t try to get a warrant before pointing a camera at one guy. Then, tried to argue that they could mount it anywhere because his fence had gaps and was only 6’ high.
For 3 months, uninterrupted? Yeah, I don't think that's reasonable at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Jones