NCJ Number
140127
Date Published
1993
Length
232 pages
Annotation
Because determining what private agents can do legally in terms of surveillance is difficult, this book provides legal guidelines that the private sector should follow when conducting covert surveillance operations.
Abstract
Laws applicable to the way private agents conduct surveillance are scattered in statutes dictated by various State legislatures and court decisions. Laws governing private agents are still being developed in relation to those already established for the public sector. Very often, agents in the private sector come from the public sector. When they assume their new responsibilities, they tend to rely on public sector laws and procedures to do their jobs. In other instances, agents enter the security field with little or no training. In providing legal guidelines for covert surveillance operations in the private sector, the book begins with a discussion of warrantless public sector surveillance operations. Consideration is paid to constitutional considerations in government surveillance operations, government liability for unlawful surveillance operations, the plain view doctrine, privacy, home and workplace surveillance, and government surveillance of public areas. The second part of the book looks at public sector standards applied to the private sector. The third and fourth sections describe private sector surveillance operations and statutory restrictions and recommendations for conducting private sector surveillance operations, respectively. Recent public sector surveillance case law is appended. References