[MR] Should we be concerned?

[oldstormcrow at aol.com]

Sorry, but this sounds like B.S. or trolling to me. And Waaaay O.T.





-----Original Message-----
From: Jacqueline Lee <lilithquestor at yahoo.com>
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Sent: Wed, Mar 17, 2010 3:48 pm
Subject: [MR] Should we be concerned?


I found this in a mailing from one of my Yahoo groups.  The Post and Courier 
hat published the story is the highly respected main newspaper for Charleston, 
C.  It relates to a situation in a largely undeveloped national forest up on 17 
orth between Mt. Pleasant and Georgetown.  While we haven't had any events 
here for a long time (sometimes an area can be TOO primitive) it makes me 
onder about other areas frequently used by the SCA.

egara
 

rancis Marion has hidden cameras
orest Service says devices used for law enforcement
y Tony Bartelme 
he Post and Courier
uesday, March 16, 2010
104 Comment(s) 
Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis 
arion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a 
ire. He pulled the wire and followed it to a video camera and antenna. 
The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home 
nd called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while 
ondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in 
he woods. 
Photo by Brad Nettles 
Staff
Herman Jacob squats next to a stump and log in the Francis Marion National 
orest where he found a video camera buried and pointing toward a camping site 
background) where he and his daughter were camping. Jacob was looking for 
irewood when he across the camera that was put there by the Forest Service. 
He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service. In 
 stiff voice, Heitzman ordered Jacob to turn it back over to his agency, 
xplaining that it had been set up to monitor "illicit activities." Jacob 
eturned the camera but felt uneasy. 
Why, he wondered, would the Forest Service have secret cameras in a relatively 
emote camping area? What do they do with photos of bystanders? How many hidden 
ameras are they using, and for what purposes? Is this surveillance in the 
orest an effective law enforcement tool? And what are our expectations of 
rivacy when we camp on public land?
Officials with the Forest Service were hardly forthcoming with answers to these 
nd other questions about their surveillance cameras. When contacted about the 
ncident, Heitzman said "no comment" and referred other questions to Forest 
ervice's public affairs, who he said, "won't know anything about it."
Heather Frebe, public affairs officer with the Forest Service in Atlanta, told 
atchdog that the camera was part of a law enforcement investigation, but she 
eclined to provide any of the investigation' s details. 
Asked how cameras are used in general, how many are routinely deployed 
hroughout the Forest and about the agency's policies, Frebe also declined to 
iscuss specifics. She said that surveillance cameras have been used for 
numerous years" to provide for public safety and to protect the natural 
esources of the forest. Without elaborating, she said images of people who are 
ot targets of an investigation are "not kept."
In addition, when asked whether surveillance cameras had led to any arrests, she 
id not provide an example, saying in an e-mail statement: "Our officers use a 
ariety of techniques to apprehend individuals who break laws on the national 
orest."
Provided/Herman Jacob
Herman Jacob found this motion-activated camera in a primitive campsite in the 
rancis Marion National Forest. 
ideo surveillance, of course, is nothing new, and the courts have addressed the 
ssue numerous times in recent decades. The Fourth Amendment guards against 
nreasonable searches and seizures, and over time the courts have created a body 
f law that defines what's reasonable, though this has become more challenging 
s surveillance cameras became smaller and more advanced. 
In general, the courts have held that people typically have no reasonable level 
f privacy in public places, such as banks, streets, open fields in plain view, 
nd on public lands, such as National Parks and National Forests. In various 
ases, judges ruled that a video camera is effectively an extension of a law 
nforcement officer's eyes and ears. In other words, if an officer can eyeball a 
ampground in person, it's OK to station a video camera in his or her place. 
Jacob said he understands that law enforcement officials have a job to do but 
uestioned whether stationing hidden cameras outweighed his and his children's 
rivacy rights. He said the camp site they went to -- off a section of the 
almetto Trail on U.S. Highway 52 north of Moncks Corner -- was primitive and 
arked only by a metal rod and a small wooden stand for brochures. He didn't 
ecall seeing any signs saying that the area was under surveillance. 
Reader poll
o you agree with the U.S. Forest Service putting surveillance cameras in the 
rancis Marion National Forest?
es 
o 
ee results
fter he found the camera, he plugged the model number, PV-700, into his 
lackberry, and his first hit on Google was a Web site offering a "law 
nforcement grade" motion-activated video camera for about $500. He called law 
nforcement agencies in the area, looking for its owner, and later got a call 
rom Heitzman, an agent with the National Forest Service. 
"He sounded all bent out of shape that I had his camera," Jacob recalled. He 
sked Heitzman about the camera's purpose. When Heitzman told him that illegal 
ctivities were taking place in the area, Jacob said he asked whether it was 
afe to camp there. He said that Heitzman reassured him that it was. Jacob said 
e later wondered why the Forest Service would set up a camera in an area they 
onsidered safe. "Now, I'm wondering how many campsites they're monitoring?" He 
honed Charleston attorney Tim Kulp for advice. 
The Post and Courier's on-line center for investigative reporting.
Are you ticked off by people who illegally use handicap placards? Want to know 
hich restaurants are making you sick or which gas stations have bad pumps?
Check out what our Watchdog reporters found. 
Kulp said the Forest Service's failure to explain what they're doing in the 
orest raises important privacy questions. "What's the goal here?" He said the 
orest Service also needs to address what they do with images of people who 
ren't targets of any investigation, particularly of children. 
Kulp said people generally are willing to give up their privacy if it means 
rotection from harm but not if law enforcement officials are merely cracking 
own on petty offenses. 
He added that people's expectations of privacy in a remote area in the National 
orest are different than other public spaces. "You're not going to go to the 
athroom in the parking lot of Walmart, but you're not going to think twice in 
he forest." Both are public spaces, he said, but most people likely would 
xpect to have more privacy in the forest. 

     
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