HB 869-FN – AS INTRODUCED
2007 SESSION
04/03
HOUSE BILL 869-FN
AN ACT relative to unauthorized video surveillance.
SPONSORS: Rep. L’Heureux, Hills 19; Rep. Kurk, Hills 7; Sen. Gallus, Dist 1
COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
This bill prohibits the use of any device for the purpose of observing, photographing, recording, amplifying, broadcasting, or transmitting images or sounds emanating from another person’s private residence or property without written permission from the inhabitant of such residence or owner of such property.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
07-1300
04/03
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seven
AN ACT relative to unauthorized video surveillance.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Violation of Privacy. Amend RSA 644:9, I(c) to read as follows:
(c) Outside a private place, any device for the purpose of hearing, recording, amplifying, broadcasting, or in any way transmitting images or sounds originating in such place which would not ordinarily be audible or comprehensible outside such place[.]; or
2 New Subparagraph; Violation of Privacy; Unauthorized Video Surveillance. Amend RSA 644:9, I by inserting after subparagraph (c) the following new subparagraph:
(d) Any device for the purpose of observing, photographing, recording, amplifying, broadcasting, or transmitting images or sounds originating from within another person’s private residence or property, without written permission from the inhabitant of such residence or owner of such property.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2008.
LBAO
07-1300
01/30/07
HB 869-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to unauthorized video surveillance.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Judicial Branch, Judicial Council, and Association of Counties state this bill may increase state and county expenditures by an indeterminable amount in fiscal year 2008 and each year thereafter. There is no fiscal impact on local expenditures or state, county and local revenues.
METHODOLOGY:
The Judicial Branch states this bill establishes a class A misdemeanor. The potential judicial and clerical costs per charge for a class A misdemeanor is $50 using current salary levels. There is also the potential for appeals, which significantly increase costs to the Branch. The Branch has no way of estimating how many offenses will be charged under this bill and therefore can not reasonably estimate its fiscal impact. However, the Branch notes that violations of the existing sections of the privacy statute have yielded only 48 charges during the last three fiscal years, 2004 through 2006, an average of sixteen per year.
The Judicial Council assumes that any cases arising from the enactment of this bill, for which the Indigent Defense Fund may be liable, will in the first instance be handled by the public defender or a contract attorney on a fixed fee basis of $275 per misdemeanor. If an assigned counsel attorney must be used, the hourly rate of $60 with a fee cap of $1,000 per misdemeanor will apply. If a motion to exceed the fee cap is approved and/or “services other than counsel” are approved, these will also be chargeable to the Indigent Defense Fund. Any case where a defendant has been found guilty may also result in appeals to either the Superior Court or to the Supreme Court which would have a cost implication for Indigent Defense expenditures made by the State. The Council is unable to predict the number of cases that may result from the passage of this bill, and is unable to determine the fiscal impact on state expenditures at this time.
The Association of Counties states to the extent individuals are prosecuted, the county may incur the cost of pre-trial detainment at the county department of corrections, as well as the cost of sentenced inmates under the new law. The average annual cost for counties to incarcerate inmates is $22,889. The Association states the total exposure to the counties would
LBAO
07-1300
01/30/07
be dependent on the number of individuals convicted and sentenced under the new law, which cannot be determined at this time.