LEGAL ISSUES

Legal Issues Concerning Criminal Intelligence Gathering and Surveillance Operations

Legal Issues Concerning Criminal Intelligence Gathering and Surveillance Operations

Introduction

Much criticism still remains from the illegal spying by police & federal agents during the anti-war & civil rights era. Because of these abuses, many are “gun shy” about getting involved in intelligence collection. To address this concern, uniform procedures and standards on how intelligence is gathered, stored, accessed, and disseminated have been developed. The Terrorist Screening Center's terrorism-screening database shows that U.S. authorities made more than 20,000 detentions as part of their terrorist- screening operations in 2006, but only a fraction of the people who were detained were actually arrested. Detentions by Customs and Border Protection agents accounted for more than half of that number, federal officials declined to say how many of the other 10,000 detainees were actually arrested, but the percentage was small, according to FBI officials. (Chainey, 2009)

Many people fear that video surveillance operations are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, but the fact is, there are very few laws, if any, regulating the use and capturing of video images in public places. The courts historically have ruled in favor of the use of surveillance when conducted in a way that any person could easily and freely view the same image/person if they were physically there. Individuals don't really have the right to expect privacy in public places, and video surveillance in such places does not constitute an invasion of privacy.

There have been cases where individuals have been found guilty of voyeurism through the capturing of video images of individuals in private situations such as restrooms or dressing rooms, but these cases are pretty rare. As technology continues to advance, the chance of these individuals being discovered becomes increasingly difficult.

While there may not be much in the way of case law today related to the legal concerns of video surveillance it is certainly best to err on the side of caution when setting up a surveillance system. You likely will not run into any legal problems if you stick to monitoring places that are accessible to the public.  (Anderson, 2009)

Discussion

As video surveillance technology improves and the available options expand, so do the ways in which this type of security technology is utilized. With more and more people installing video security surveillance systems the legal concerns of surveillance operations cannot be overlooked.

As video surveillance becomes more sophisticated and discrete, the chance of abuse taking place becomes more and more likely. When paired with face recognition software, sophisticated systems can identify individuals by comparing their image to the driver's license database maintained by the Department of Motor Vehicles. While it's easy to see how this type of technology is beneficial to law enforcement, it's a little eerie to think that there is nothing stopping anyone from having access to such personal information. (Christopher, 2009)

Critics of the database claim that the low arrest rate is proof that the government's screening efforts too often net innocent people, but federal ...