“Warrantless photographic surveillance”
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https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2023/06/02/723698.htm
A Connecticut husband and wife claim in a lawsuit that a bear with a camera is violating their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. They want the state to stop it.
Mark and Carol Brault allege that the state attached the camera to the bear that has gone onto their property and taken photos of the interior of their home in West Hartland. They maintain the wild animal’s actions amount to “warrantless photographic surveillance” of the interior of their home on their 114 acre property.
In their complaint against the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Braults allege that DEEP has tagged and placed cameras on bears in their area, including one known as Bear 119 which they observed on May 20 on their property with a video camera on its collar. Mark Brault took a photograph of the bear with his own camera.
“I have known that bear for a long time,” Brault says in an accompanying affidavit. He said the bear frequents their property and adjacent properties.
The Braults say they never gave the state permission to enter their property and the state never notified them that bears it knows frequent their property have been tagged and equipped with video surveillance equipment.
