They want Big Brother out of their bedroom!
A Brooklyn couple is suing the NYPD over a surveillance camera that allegedly points directly into their bedroom and living room — saying it violates their constitutional rights and is part of a system that intrudes on “the private lives of millions.”
Pamela Wridt and Robert Sauve, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, say the police camera aimed at their green apartment building on Herkimer Street has forced them to cover their windows to find any privacy.
The couple claims the camera and city’s larger “Domain Awareness System” camera violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights. Christopher Sadowski
“[They] live under the constant gaze of DAS surveillance as the NYPD mounted a box with two cameras directly outside their home, aimed at their living room and bedroom windows,” the lawsuit states.
“The cameras’ presence has transformed what should be their place of safety into a space of anxiety. They have covered their windows with foil to block the cameras’ view, depriving themselves of sunlight and the simple enjoyment of looking outside.”
The couple claims the camera and the city’s larger “Domain Awareness System” — which includes stationary cameras and ones mounted on drones and helicopters — violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights to privacy and free expression.
“You are being watched,” declares the lawsuit — which is the first of its kind to challenge the department’s sprawling surveillance system.
“Today, throughout New York City, the police are monitoring, tracking, and cataloguing you. Nearly everywhere. Nearly all the time,” states the lawsuit, filed Monday in New York federal court.
The camera in question near the couple’s home is mounted on a pole on the sidewalk across from their apartment, and appears to also pick up footage from other homes on the block.
The NYPD also uses surveillance footage from drones. Paul Martinka
Previous lawsuits have targeted smaller aspects of the NYPD’s $3 billion surveillance system but the couple’s case focuses on the broader constitutional harm, according to the Intercept, which was first to report the suit.
“It is an unprecedented violation of American life and now stands as one of the largest surveillance networks operated anywhere in the world,” the suit states. “Aggregated data enables the NYPD to uncover constitutionally protected activity….such as political expression, religious practice, or private association, that would be unknowable from any single source.”
“[THE NYPD] collects the identity, location, banking details, vehicle information, social media activity, and friend groups of all who live in or enter the city. It combines these entries with civil and criminal records and converts them into digital profiles, reconstructing, in effect, the private lives of millions. It is virtually impossible to avoid,” the lawsuit states.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the camera was mounted in the location across from the apartment on Herkimer Street.
The NYPD didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.