Video surveillance technology is growing at a rapid pace, in both quality and quantity. In a recent case involving a farm in Wisconsin growing over 1,000 marijuana plants, the Drug Enforcement Administration installed high-definition surveillance cameras. The DEA arrested farm owners Manuel Mendoza and Marco Magana, who have been charged with federal drug crimes and face life imprisonment.
While the accused men claimed their fourth amendment right to privacy was violated by a warrantless DEA camera installation, US District Judge William Griesbach ruled that the cameras were placed in areas of the farm where one could not reasonably expect privacy.
In cases all around the nation, it seems the boundaries of fourth amendment privacy privileges are actively sacrificed by judicial preference to national and local security efforts. It is, in fact, hard to turn a blind eye to crimes that can be so vividly exposed by video surveillance footage. That said, the laws on these issues are different in every state, and almost always include grey area that leaves room for interpretation – interpretation that generally comes after surveillance footage has been entered as evidence, and people like Mendoza and Magana are already on trial for their crimes.
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