7th Cir. Affirms Cops’ Warrantless Use of Surveillance Cameras

A Seventh Circuit panel blessed law enforcement’s warrantless use of pole cameras to surveil homes, finding that it doesn’t amount to a search under the Fourth Amendment.

The pole camera surveillance didn’t give law enforcement greater access to the residence of Charles House, a defendant charged with a dozen drug possession- and distribution-related offenses, than would otherwise be “available to any observer on the sidewalk,” Judge Michael B. Brennan wrote for the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Tuesday’s opinion.

The majority opinion reiterated the Seventh Circuit’s 2021 holding in US v. ...