Video camera watches man's backyard despite his objection

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel



A camera keeps a watchful eye on John Gambino's Plantation property from atop a 12-foot pole. The
camera is not his; it's his neighbor's, fueling a dispute over privacy and property rights that plays out
time and again across South Florida.

A camera keeps a watchful eye on John Gambino's Plantation property from atop a 12-foot pole. The camera is not his; it's his neighbor's, fueling a dispute over privacy and property rights that plays out time and again across South Florida.

There's little police and cities can do: Your neighbors can take video of your property as long as they don't set out to violate your privacy.

A Florida voyeurism law says your right to privacy extends to any part of your home where you undress and feel comfortable someone isn't recording, such as your bathroom or bedroom.

But the law doesn't put everything off limits from being recorded. Neighbors still can record your yard, the exterior of your house or anything else on your property that's in public view.

"You have the right to use your property the way you see fit and that can include cameras," said Howard Finkelstein, Broward's public defender. "If the camera is pointed at the neighbor's front door, the right of the homeowner to have cameras trumps the neighbor's privacy."

The practice of neighbors recording neighbors has become commonplace as more homes are equipped with surveillance cameras that are increasingly affordable and reliable, officials say.

In North Miami Beach, police currently are monitoring a case similar to the one in Plantation.

"Many times the installation of this video surveillance system is a direct result of the neighbor dispute where some claim of retaliation by one neighbor against another neighbor is alleged," said North Miami Beach police spokesman Tom Carney.

In Plantation, the camera pointed at Gambino's property in Jacaranda Lakes has been up for more than two months.

Police confirmed that Gambino, 54, reported his neighbor Della Denman, 52, to the city in late 2013, alleging various city code violations. The camera subsequently went up.

Denman said she won't budge on the camera. She said someone tossed chicken bones over her fence twice this year, and she is worried that her golden retriever, schipperke and cocker spaniel may eat and choke on them.

When she complained to police, officers told her she needed evidence, she said. She already had a camera near her front door and garage. Wanting to record the person throwing the bones, she had another camera installed in the backyard.

"I've got to be able to protect my dogs," she said.

The surveillance footage is saved to a DVR and if she doesn't stop it, it simply continues to record over itself, she said.

Denman says she doesn't buy the argument that she's violating Gambino's privacy because their backyards are open to the lake.

"I'm not seeing anything that everyone on the lake can't see," she said.

Gambino has since tried to get police to intervene, even arranging for Police Chief Howard Harrison to personally inspect the camera.

The police chief tried to have Denman take down the camera. "But it's clearly her call," Harrison said. "I can't force her to do that."

Harrison said he was told by Denman that "her whole objective of putting the camera up is to protect her property. There is no intent on her part to invade his privacy."

However, the chief said he did instruct Denman to adjust the camera so that it wasn't aimed at Gambino's house, where it was getting a full view of his shower stall.

"I told her you can't point this into his house," Harrison said. "She said, 'No problem, chief.'"

As camera-oriented neighbor disputes arise, the only action that officers usually can take is to try to resolve the problem, Carney said. Police also ensure no crimes were committed by either neighbor.

There may be cases in which the purpose of a camera isn't to deter crime, but instead it's to spy on a neighbor, Carney said. "However, the intent behind the placement of the cameras is difficult if not impossible to prove in many cases," he said.

If there is any question about a homeowner's intent, prosecutors may review the case to determine if any privacy laws were broken, Carney said.

Gambino said he hopes to petition the City Council for intervention and ask they create an ordinance to stop the camera recording of neighbors.

"Why would the mayor and council allow something like this to happen?" he asked. "I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

The council never addressed it as a whole, but some members said they would prefer to see the neighbors work it out themselves.

[redred]

Plant a tree

[Pony]

I don't blame her one bit for installing the camera.

[FBD]

time to star destroying cameras