How to Stop Cops From Using Your Neighbors to Spy on Your Home!

It’s not just the government spying on you; your neighbors might be helping them too. In this video, I’m diving into how the police use your neighbors to spy on your home—legally and without a warrant.

You’d think your home is your sanctuary, protected by the Fourth Amendment, right? But as the case of Borg v. Town of Westport shows, that’s not always how it plays out. Imagine finding out that police were using your neighbor’s camera to conduct 13 weeks of continuous surveillance on your home—all without a warrant. And it’s perfectly legal.

❗️DISCLAIMER❗️

This is not legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! All content provided is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

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[MrBreadoflife]

flood lights pointed at your neighnours camera

[johncavanaugh]

The 4th Amendment has been slowly eroded to nothing...

[lmcalhoun]

If they can aim a camera at your property, you can aim a dazzling laser at their camera. If they don't like it, they can move their camera.

[williammccallum]

Some police officers decided you are a criminal, then they build a case.

[samuelchappell]

The problem with the Borg's lawsuit was that the Borgs went after the cops first. They should have went after the neighbors for damages done by the neighbors for allowing the cops to use their home for surveillance purposes. It would have been even more devastating if the entire neighborhood got together for a class action lawsuit, or maybe use the HOA to file a lawsuit for violating HOA bylaws for illegally surveilling other neighbor's property. Once filed, I am sure that those neighbors would have told the cops to take a hike.

[SkaggsFamily]

If the "public" does not have reasonable and legal access to "plain view" within the curtilage of your property from the second floor window of your neighbor's house, then neither should the police without a warrant.

[danielhurst]

There is an advantage of living at the very top of a hill, on top of a mountain, where literally, no neighbor can see your house, much less into your house.
This, "It's not a search, we just have cameras on you 24/7/365" is insane and has to stop.

[horsefan]

A key issue with the police doing this is that it's the police doing it.
Aside from what they're "allowed" to do by law, there is the question of resources that are paid for by the taxpayer being directed to investigate someone to this degree who has not done anything wrong and is not suspected of doing anything wrong.

Normally, if police had to sit in their car and watch the house, it would cost them a lot more than using a neighbor's camera.

The use of the neighbor's camera brings up all sorts of questions of chain of custody of evidence as well. You have an aggrieved party generating possible tampered evidence of something.

So, that's how I would approach it. Why are the cops doing this? They need to have a reason to target one specific household and they don't have that.

[RioBowen]

Couldn't you argue voyeurism? The fact the police did that for 13 weeks, without a warrant with specifics on what they could record, could be easily interpreted or assumed that the police were there to watch their most intimate moments?

[Phosfit]

Curtains closed or window covers prevent your access to sunlight. We should have right to sunlight AND privacy. This shouldn’t be an issue.

[MarcusP]

In the Borg's case, I would think an argument could be made regarding HIPAA violations since they had patients coming and going. They not only had an expectation of privacy, they had a legal obligation to maintain privacy in their therapy practice.

[alanhope]

This is like what secret police did in East Germany.

[LordHollow]

They would have 13 weeks of my custom curtains closed, with the middle finger embroidered on it.

[trashn]

This time, the Borg learned that resistance is futile.

[kamilegier]

I live in a very rural area where my home is surrounded by timber where my home can’t be seen whatsoever from anywhere except from the air. I love peace and quiet that comes with solitude

[bowieupland]

There were many neighbors who worked with the police during Nazi Germany, Bolshevik Russia, and Mao's China.

[JasonJenkins-fpvx]

Wake me up when they UPHOLD the 4th amendment ever.

[pcojedi]

I was doing research into home security cameras and had focused on The Ring, then I read a statement where a man had a ring system on his house and business. The police went to him and told him they thought his neighbor was a drug dealer and asked for video of certain time of the day and he said ok and the owner got and sent the video. I think he said it was time consuming for the amount of time that the police wanted. The police went back the next week and wanted an entire weeks worth of this door ring camera and he said no. The police got a warrant and presented it to the ring company. The company informed the home owner that the warrant was for all his cameras, about 4 in home and 10 at place of business. They tried to fight it and lost. I did not go with any major security system after reading that.

[mtw]

Every government building I've been in has security cameras watching and recording us. Although if you walk in with a camera all hell breaks loose.

[EvelioPerez]

It is not legal... When law enforcement enlist the help of a third party citizen to actively perform law enforcement duties, those citizens, neighbors, etc. are consider to be deputized, and by extension law enforcement themselves. Just like the private employee reviewing your speed camera traffic citations.