Article published Jan 15, 2007
Bill would alter N.H. wiretap statute
By Andrew Wolfe
Telegraph Staff
CONCORD – A Nashua man’s arrest for recording
detectives at his door last year has inspired a
bill to let property owners record audio and
video on their premises without notice.
Michael Gannon, 40, was arrested June 27, after
his home security camera made video and audio
recordings of detectives who had come to 26
Morgan St. looking for his teenage son.
Gannon was arrested on felony wiretapping charges
after he brought the recordings to the police
station to complain that a detective was rude to
him. The case drew international ire, especially
online, and police later opted to drop the
charges. Police also concluded that GannonÂ’s
complaint against the detective was justified.
Police later returned GannonÂ’s cameras and
recording equipment, though he said the wiring
was damaged when police pulled them from the
mounts. Police refused to give back GannonÂ’s
tapes, however, saying they were illegal recordings, and thus contraband.
GannonÂ’s lawyer, Larry Vogelman of Manchester,
said Thursday heÂ’s still negotiating with the
department to get the tapes back. Gannon hopes
the tapes will serve as evidence for a lawsuit
against police, he said Thursday.
Gannon had been charged with violating the state
wiretap and eavesdropping law (RSA 570-A:2). The
law makes it a felony to use any sort of
electronic device to eavesdrop or record other
peopleÂ’s conversations without their consent.
Representative Dudley Dumaine, R-Auburn, wants to
change that. Last week, Dumaine and five other
sponsors introduced House Bill 97, which would
add an exception to the law, letting property
owners record their own premises, with or without warning.
“This bill creates an exception to the violation
of privacy and wiretapping and eavesdropping
statutes to allow any person to conduct, without
notice, audio or video recordings, or both, on
his or her private property and curtilage for
security purposes,” the bill’s description states.
The bill has been referred to the House Criminal
Justice and Public Safety Committee, but a public
hearing has yet to be scheduled. Dumaine said
Thursday he likes the billÂ’s chances, despite a lack of Democratic sponsors.
“It’s just common sense,” he said. “I can’t
picture anybody not believing that it’s okay to protect your property.”
GannonÂ’s case inspired the bill, Dumaine said.
“I was not aware of this (wiretap law),” Dumaine
said, despite working as a Keene police officer
and private investigator. “If somebody had come
up to me and asked, ‘Can I put cameras up on my
house?’ I would have said, ‘Absolutely.’”
“I have that right, by law, to defend my property
and the curtilage around it,” using even deadly
force if need be, Dumaine said. “If we can do
that, why canÂ’t we have cameras without warning
people? Cameras do not kill anybody.”
Gannon thinks the bill is a good one, and should pass, he said Thursday.
“I’d be very much in support of that,” he said. “We need laws like that.”
Gannon said the calls and e-mails have dwindled
since the case was first publicized, but he
appreciated the many supportive messages he received.
“I wasn’t bothered too much from it,” he said. “I
was getting a lot of e-mails. Every day the phone
would ring. We got like 30 messages a day.”
Dumaine crafted his bill so that property owners
would no longer need to post warnings of
recording on the premises, either, as has become
common in stores that use video for anti-theft
purposes. Warnings only serve to invite criminals
to steal the recording equipment, or find other
ways to subvert it, Dumaine said.
“A property owner has the right to monitor his
property, and not have to warn people,” Dumaine
said. “Criminals case places. Why does the
property owner have to notify people that theyÂ’re
being taped . . . Why would you notify a criminal
that there is certain equipment he can steal?”
Though the draft bill has yet to be introduced,
Dumaine also plans to sponsor a bill to make it
legal to make video and audio recordings of
people in public settings, where they have no
reasonable expectation of privacy, he said.
That bill was motivated by a case in the Keene
area, in which a motorist was charged for turning
on a tape recorder after being pulled over by
police, Dumaine said. Citing the infamous Rodney
King beating in Los Angeles, which was recorded
on video, Dumaine said, “If that had happened in
New Hampshire, the person who took the video would have been arrested.”
People should be able to record others in a
public setting, and the popularity of small,
digital recording devices could prove to be
powerful crime-fighting tool, Dumaine said.
“It’s not just about police,” he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
World Class, Professional, Ethical, and Competent Bug Sweeps, and
Wiretap Detection using Sophisticated Laboratory Grade Test Equipment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803
Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467
127 Eastern Avenue #291 Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 E-mail: mailto:jm..._at_tscm.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We perform bug sweeps like it's a contact sport; we don't play fair, we
take no prisoners, and we give no quarter. Our goal is to stop the spy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST