{"id":21605,"date":"2025-10-29T18:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T18:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21605\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T18:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T18:35:31","slug":"brooklyn-couple-sues-nypd-over-surveillance-camera-that-points-directly-into-their-bedroom-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21605\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn couple sues NYPD over surveillance camera that points directly into their bedroom: suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

They want Big Brother out of their bedroom!<\/p>\n

A Brooklyn couple is suing the NYPD over a surveillance camera that allegedly points directly into their bedroom and living room \u2014 saying it violates their constitutional rights and is part of a system that intrudes on \u201cthe private lives of millions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"camera\"The couple claims the camera and city\u2019s larger \u201cDomain Awareness System\u201d camera violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201c[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,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cameras\u2019 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\u2019 view, depriving themselves of sunlight and the simple enjoyment of looking outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple claims the camera and the city\u2019s larger \u201cDomain Awareness System\u201d<\/a> \u2014 which includes stationary cameras and ones mounted on drones and helicopters \u2014\u00a0 violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights to privacy and free expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are being watched,\u201d declares the lawsuit \u2014 which is the first of its kind to challenge the department\u2019s sprawling surveillance system.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, throughout New York City, the police are monitoring, tracking, and cataloguing you. Nearly everywhere. Nearly all the time,\u201d states the lawsuit, filed Monday in New York federal court.<\/p>\n

The camera in question near the couple\u2019s home is mounted on a pole on the sidewalk across from their apartment,\u00a0and appears to also pick up footage from other homes on the block.<\/p>\n

\"brooklynThe NYPD also uses surveillance footage from drones. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

Previous lawsuits\u00a0have targeted smaller aspects of the NYPD\u2019s $3 billion surveillance system but the couple\u2019s case focuses on the broader constitutional harm, according to the Intercept, which was first to report the suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an unprecedented violation of American life and now stands as one of the largest surveillance networks operated anywhere in the world,\u201d the suit states. \u201cAggregated data enables the NYPD to uncover constitutionally protected activity\u2026.such as political expression, religious practice, or private association, that would be unknowable from any single source.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[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,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear why the camera was mounted in the location across from the apartment on Herkimer Street.<\/p>\n

The NYPD didn\u2019t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They want Big Brother out of their bedroom! A Brooklyn couple is suing the NYPD over a surveillance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3100,57,9,24,63,103,306,13369,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-21605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-lawsuit","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nypd","17":"tag-privacy","18":"tag-surveillance","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}