City of Green Bay defends audio capabilities of security cameras after City Council member complains 'Big Brother is listening'
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Editor's note: This story has been updated with a response from the city of Green Bay.
GREEN BAY - News that people in City Hall may have their conversations recorded without their knowledge has prompted powerful reactions from an elected official who raised the issue on Tuesday, and from a De Pere-based state senator.
Meanwhile, officials have provided no clear answer about whether the recordings the city is capable of making, at least on the building's lower floors, is or is not legal. Wisconsin is a "one-party state," meaning, generally, a conversation can legally be recorded if at least one person in the conversation are aware that a recording is being made.
State Sen. Andre Jacque, a Republican, said Thursday he was “stunned” to learn Mayor Eric Genrich installed microphones in the security system without first alerting the public or City Council members. He blamed Genrich for deciding to have recording equipment installed.
“It’s difficult to overstate just how egregiously and jaw-droppingly brazen a violation of civil rights and exposure to criminal and civil liability it is for (Genrich) to green-light snooping on his own constituents without cause,” Jacque said in a statement. “What were they thinking?”
Attempts to reach City Attorney Joanne Bungert Thursday afternoon and most of the day Friday were unsuccessful. On Friday afternoon, the city of Green Bay released a "fact sheet" about the security system, which the city said it installed between the winter of 2021 and summer 2022 on the first and second floors of City Hall.
"This type of security system is lawful and commonplace," the city said in its fact sheet. Of the 14 cameras in public areas of City Hall, three of them have audio capability and are located "only in the hallways of the first and second floors," the city said, noting that similar technology is used in the Green Bay Police Department lobby for nearly a decade. The city also said its transit system has 77 security cameras and they have had video and audio capabilities for 20 years. The Metro lobby has had audio and video monitoring since 2009.
Jacque on Thursday released a Wisconsin Legislative Council analysis he sought from the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys that concluded the city’s installation of listening devices without alerting visitors to the fact they were being recorded could be illegal. Attorneys Tom Koss and Melissa Schmidt said state law bars audio recording of people in certain settings and situations when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy and consent to record has not been implied by anyone involved.
“In a setting like a governmental building, factors that are likely to provide a person with a reasonable expectation of privacy include speaking at a low volume, away from passersby, and in a small group of people who are unlikely to report what was said. Consent may be expressly given or implied,” the attorneys wrote.
“Whether a party has given implied consent is a fact-specific determination and requires that at least one party was provided with meaningful notice of the surveillance. Without a sign or other form of monitoring notice, it may be difficult for a person recording a communication to claim that the parties to the communication impliedly consented to the recording.”
Green Bay City Council member Chris Wery on Tuesday night alleged that "citizens and employees are being spied on at City Hall." He asked Genrich to remove the equipment; Genrich said he would not. The pair then argued briefly about whether Wery was trying to drag Genrich into a debate.
Wery later continued, "Big Brother is listening. We the people are not amused."
Jacque said that in Green Bay City Hall, such scenarios could include attorneys talking to clients; political discussions by voters casting in-person absentee ballots, journalists having off-the-record conversations with sources, and City Council members and constituents quietly conferring outside of council chambers, among other situations.
The state senator said this practice "needs to end now.”
In its fact sheet, the city also stated the following:
The Wisconsin Legislative Council memo "did not detail serious legal concerns."
The audio/video recording is not police surveillance, but "for the purposes of responding to an emergency."
City staff does not continually monitory the footage, but "after the fact, video and audio has been reviewed and proved valuable in gathering information about accidents, altercations, and damage to property at City Hall."
Signs are not required, however, the city administration will install signs in City Hall, in the Metro Transit lobby and in the lobby the police department.
Wery, who chairs City Council's Parks Committee, has asked that the issue be placed on the agenda for the next meeting of the committee.
Email Doug Schneider at DSchneid@Gannett.com, call him at (920) 265-2070 and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: It's unclear if recordings made in Green Bay City Hall are illegal
