Police Install Camera Focused on Back Yard of Womans HomeJay Stanley What prompted this apparently was that the city had had issues with our clients father. The property is a duplex; he lives in one side of the duplex, our client and her family lives in the other side of the duplex. And the city had gone around with the father about feeding wild cats. That was the reason, apparently, they put the camera in the treereally. The camera was in the tree for three days in late October, and took pictures of her house from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. It took time-lapse pictures. Our client saw it and called the police about it. They sent out an officer who lied to her and said it was to watch people walking through the woods. The city now admits that was a total lie. But the next day, somebody from the city came and took the camera out. Bonney adds, Im glad we got a good resolution, but this issue is one that is going to keep popping up. Fourth Amendment law is in crisis right now as its application to vast areas of American life has been challenged by government agencies taking advantage of evolving technology. But the privacy of the home remains sacrosanct and in many ways is the clearest, easiest case for constitutional privacy protection, so even given the relative novelty of cheap video surveillance in our society, its somewhat surprising that such cases are coming up. 