A recent City Council meeting of Ludington, Michigan, a town on the edge of Lake Michigan, heard during public comment from citizen Tom Rotta of hidden surveillance cameras in city park restrooms and how, with great detail to the Council, those cameras were able to video record the activities of the public in the stalls and at the urinals.
City Attorney Richard Wilson cited, as a precedent, PEOPLE v. LILLIS Docket No. 115618, 181 Mich. App. 315, Michigan Court of Appeals from November of 1989 that “… defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the common area of the public rest room. Regardless of defendant’s subjective expectation of privacy, we cannot conclude that such an expectation is one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.”
Mr. Rotta’s contention is that these hidden cameras are not only recording the common areas of the public restroom but also that of the stalls and urinals. You can read Mr. Rotta’s blog here.
At one point a member of the City Council declared that if the City could not use video surveillance in the bathrooms then the City should close the public restrooms from use. Reviewing the City Council meeting, it appears the council members are not concerned about what these video cameras are recording and if there is any distinction between common area video recording and stall and urinal video recording.
Ludington, MI, City Council meeting of August 26, 2013
SecurityHive reached out to the City of Ludington’s Mayor’s office seeking comment on this issue. John Shay, the City Manager, provided this response:
Monday, September 9, 2013 9:21am
Ludington Mayor John Henderson has asked me to respond to your e-mail regarding the presence of security cameras in some of the City of Ludington’s public restrooms.
The City operates 8 public restrooms (Stearns Park south concession stand, Stearns Park north concession stand, Loomis Street boat launch, Waterfront Park, North James Street Plaza restroom, Copeyon Park, City Park and the Municipal Marina). As you noted in your e-mail, Tom Rotta alleged that the cameras installed in the restrooms at Waterfront Park record footage in the private bathroom stalls and urinal area of the restroom. This is false. There are cameras located in two of the City’s public restrooms (Waterfront Park and North James Street Plaza). They were installed in the 1990s and in 2000 in response to numerous incidents of vandalism in these restrooms. Some of the cameras installed in these restrooms are “fake” cameras and have never recorded any type of footage in the restrooms. Some of the cameras are “real” and have the ability to record footage only in the common area of the restrooms. The common areas would be the areas near the sinks and entrances to the restrooms. The cameras never have and do not record images within the private bathroom stalls or urinals areas of the restrooms. Nevertheless, because of the deterrent effect these cameras have had on vandalism in City restrooms, the City has tried not to disclose that some of the cameras are fake and does so now only reluctantly to counter the misperception that it is violating the privacy of its citizens.
The “real” cameras are connected to a VCR by a wire, which records the images on a VHS tape. The system is not monitored. The City has a policy that only the Chief of Police would review footage from these cameras on an as-needed basis. Since 2001, the Chief of Police has reviewed footage on three separate occasions. The first two were several years ago in response to vandalism damage at the North James Street Plaza restrooms. The third occasion was in response to a request from Mr. Rotta in July 2013 for a copy of the Waterfront Park videotape.
Mr. Rotta also filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police alleging that the City was in violation of state law for having cameras in a public restroom. The Michigan State Police concluded that the City is not in violation of any law. Furthermore, there are at least three court cases from the Michigan Court of Appeals (People v. Lillis, 181 Mich App 315, 448 NW2d 818 (1989), People v. Lynch, 179 Mich App 63, 445 NW2d 803 (1989) and People v. Heydenberk, 171 Mich App 494, 430 NW2d 760 (1988)), which ruled that persons do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the common areas of a public restroom and, therefore, cameras focused on these areas do not violate the anti-surveillance laws of the state of Michigan. The “real” cameras in the City’s restrooms are positioned so that they could only provide footage in the common areas of the restroom and not in any of the private stalls or urinal areas.
It should be noted that Mr. Rotta also made allegations at the August 26, 2013 City Council meeting that the City had installed a camera system in the ceiling smoke detectors in the newly renovated Stearns Park north concession stand restrooms. This is false. The ceiling “smoke detectors” are actually sensors, which control the lights in the restrooms. There are no cameras in these restrooms.
For the last 13-15 years, the cameras have had the desired effect of reducing the incidents of vandalism and other criminal activity in these restrooms without invading anyone’s privacy. The City will continue to strive to ensure that its efforts to reduce criminal activity in the restrooms are done in such a way that no one’s privacy is invaded.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
John Shay
City Manager
City of Ludington