Ruling: Cops Recording Your Every Move For 10 Weeks Doesn’t Violate The Constitution

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled it is not unconstitutional for law enforcement to set up a camera on a public utility pole and record a suspect’s moves for 10 weeks straight.

Such warrantless recording is permitted, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said, because people have “no reasonable expectation of privacy in video footage recorded by a camera that was located on top of a public utility pole and that captured the same views enjoyed by passersby on public roads.”

Ruling: Cops Recording Your Every Move For 10 Weeks Doesn’t Violate The Constitution 56b939b71a00002d00ab23ce

Ruling: Cops Recording Your Every Move For 10 Weeks Doesn’t Violate The Constitution 56b939b71a00002d00ab23ce

The ruling stemmed in part from a nasty, years-long confrontation between two Tennessee brothers and local police — long-simmering bad blood that led to shootouts, officer deaths and ultimately a criminal trial that ended in acquittals for the brothers.

Despite this history, the conflict persisted, and federal agents later learned from local law enforcement that one of the brothers, Rocky Houston, had a prior felony and thus was in violation of federal law for possessing firearms in his rural property — which he shared with his brother Leon, who slept in a trailer, and an adult daughter, who lived in a nearby barn.
Federal agents followed up on the tip and visited the property to investigate, but quickly realized that their vehicle “stuck out like a sore thumb” and they couldn’t conduct proper surveillance of the premises. That’s when they enlisted the help of the utility company and, without obtaining a warrant, set up a camera from a pole located roughly 200 yards away from Leon’s trailer.
That was good enough to monitor the brothers’ activities for 10 weeks straight, including instances of Houston handling guns on the property. About a month after the surveillance ended, the agents moved in on the farm, seized 25 firearms — 17 of them Houston’s — and charged him under a federal law that prohibits former felons from possessing them.
Houston was ultimately convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for the offense, in large part based on the evidence gathered through the warrantless surveillance of the family property.

On appeal, the 6th Circuit ruled the surveillance didn’t violate his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches.

“The ATF agents only observed what Houston made public to any person traveling on the roads surrounding the farm,” the court said, reasoning that the “agents had a right to access the public utility pole and the camera captured only views that were plainly visible to any member of the public who drove down the roads bordering the farm.”

Ruling: Cops Recording Your Every Move For 10 Weeks Doesn’t Violate The Constitution

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled it is not unconstitutional for law enforcement to set up a camera on a public utility pole and record a suspect’s moves for 10 weeks straight.

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Ruling: Cops Recording Your Every Move For 10 Weeks Doesn’t Violate The Constitution

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