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FOLLOW UP TO CAMERAS AUDIO AND SIGNS FROM NOVEMBER 8 2016 ARTICLE
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Ken,
In the state of Kentucky, under what circumstances is audio surveillance legal (video surveillance WITH audio) for a business? In common areas (common office space, break areas, front desk)? What if posted at the front door to the business? In individual offices? What if fraud or other criminal activity is suspected? What are the repercussions for the business?
In general, I understand the law (in KY) to read that one of the two people being recorded has to be aware of the audio being recorded. But is that the extent? Are there exceptions?
You had replied to a comment a while back in which a situation was described where a father had recorded conversations between an ex- wife and their child which led the father to believe that abuse by the ex- wife’s boyfriend was occurring or something similar. Your comments were helpful, I would like to expand on the question a little.
Thank you,
Jan Puetthoff
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RESPONSE
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Audio - video laws are posted state by state on our website at:
https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-law-issues
I am not aware of any statute that permits a private party to circumvent the statutory prohibitions by posting signs. Though signs may be required in some jurisdictions for specific purposes [NYC requires signs at night club entrances] these sign requirements will not excuse statute compliance or constitute either express or implied consent.
The situation you describe above regarding the father surreptitiously recording his child's phone was a carved out exception by a court. That court permitted the illegally recorded conversation to be used in a criminal case against the ex-wife's boyfriend and the essence of the court ruling was that under certain dire circumstances, such as the welfare of a child, the audio law could be circumvented. This is hardly a reliable basis to ignore the video - audio laws.
I'll take this opportunity to comment that you are merely the installer of a system, video, audio or both. While you may want to let your subscriber know that there are laws governing the use of the equipment it's up to the subscriber to find out the law and comply with the law. As you are not the subscriber's lawyer you should not be providing any legal advice. This advice however is not an open license to install systems where you know it isn't even possible to comply with the law. I recommend that you turn those jobs down. But systems installed in perfectly legitimate areas can be used to abuse the law, and that can't be your fault and you shouldn't have any liability.
The audio - video systems are covered by the Commercial All in One and the Residential All in One. You should be using the Disclaimer Notice with those agreements and it's on that Disclaimer Notice that you can note additional comments regarding the audio or video equipment. The comments could also be noted in the Schedule of Equipment and Services that we provide with each of the All in One agreements
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