by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Private investigator and former New York City Investigative Sergeant Sean Mulholland offered a circulated quote to the Northeast Florida Paralegal Association.
“You have zero privacy,” he said. “Get over it.”
Mulholland was asked earlier this month to talk about his business and offered the when, where, who, why, what and how people are watched, as in followed, tailed or otherwise surveilled by private investigative firms.
Law enforcement has more authority.
“When can I watch you?” he asked.
“Whenever you want, whenever I want and whenever a third party wants,” he said.
“When you can be watched is whenever there is an opportunity,” he said.
“Where can I watch you?” he asked.
A reasonable expectation of privacy is the basic standard, although what can be viewed from a public place is the letter of the law, he said.
Mulholland said you can be watched in public places, as well as facilities with public access, although that can be ambiguous.
“Who can watch you?” he asked.
He said there was “a very limited restriction” on who can watch you, although there is a distinction between stalking and surveillance.
Arestraining order not only applies to the person named in the order, but to the agent hired by that individual.
“Why can I watch you?” he asked.
“No reason,” he said. “There is no real restriction,” although harassment comes into play if the surveillance moves to stalking.
“What can I watch?”
“Anything in public,” said Mullholland.
He said that one of the few restrictions in Florida is that surveillance must be conducted from a public place of public access.
“How can I watch?” he asked.
He said by video, still photos and GPS, although the installation of a GPS tracking device must have the consent of a vehicle’s owner.
He said in one case, a wife approved the GPS tracker on the vehicle used by her husband. The vehicle was jointly owned.
Mulholland said the GPS device was found by a mechanic working on the vehicle, but that worked out well. “A mechanic put it on for me in a better place,” he said.
“They didn’t like him either.”
Mulholland explained that states have different laws, but in Florida, audiotaping must be consented to by all parties.
Mulholland also talked about the topic of “Your Electronic Footprint.” He wrote about it in PI Magazine in the November/December issue and distributed copies to the group.
He wrote that
• The advent of online databases has “significantly improved access to records and reduced the cost of record-searching.”
• Advances in videocamera technology, costs and size have significantly improved the ability of surveillance investigators “to obtain quality documentation of the requested, routinely illicit, activity.”
• Word processing programs that enable photos and brief videoclips have provided “the ability to instantaneously e-mail photos to clients to confirm the identity of a subject.”
As an example, Mulholland wrote that the criminal defense team in the Duke Lacrosse rape case used electronically stored information in the defense of their clients. All charges were dropped.
He said they acquired phone, ATM, access card and credit card records; digital photos; and security videos. All of that allowed them to develop “a time line that corroborated their clients’ accounts of events.”
However, Mulholland also wrote that investigators must become familiar with electronic espionage criminal statutes and make sure they do not use illegal methods or techniques.
Mulholland also warned about “this Facebook thing.” The Facebook social network has more than 500 million members who share information.
“We tell people, don’t put things on there,” referring to private information that could be accessed by criminals, including predators.
He said that many organizations already have a lot of electronic information about people, including surveillance video by businesses such as banks, gas stations and retail stores.
Mulholland said Google Maps with Street View is another source of information. Mulholland said one man said he was working late but was found on Street View at an “adult store.” Another guy was found climbing out the back door of a woman’s house as her husband was coming in the front door.
He said Street View has also captured car crashes, arrests, drug deals and more.
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