Former Pollard Memorial Library Assistant Diane Cloutier says the city of Lowell’s surveillance of her constitutes an invasion of privacy. The city’s hiring of private investigators to covertly track employees suspected of wrongdoing has uncovered fraud and led to disciplinary measures in a number of cases.

But for the first time, Lowell’s use of investigators who conduct video surveillance of city employees is being publicly challenged by a former worker who claims her privacy rights have been violated.

Former Pollard Memorial Library Assistant Diane Cloutier says the surveillance video taken of her during a two-month period last fall, including video shot by zooming into the windows of the Lowell residence where she lives, went too far.

In response, Cloutier said in the coming weeks she will be suing the city, as well as current and former city employees, in Middlesex Superior Court for invasion of privacy.

Cloutier said Absolute Investigations of East Bridgewater, a private firm hired by the city, shot most of the video after she alleges city officials had terminated her and she was a private citizen. At no time was she out on worker’s compensation when the video was shot, Cloutier said.

According to Cloutier, the taxpayer-funded video also shows her looking at stuffed animals inside the card store where her mother works, trying on a shirt over her clothes in a Sears store, shopping for groceries, and going to local banks.