GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — City of Green Bay officials maintain audio surveillance at city hall is lawful after receiving a letter from an attorney for the Wisconsin State Senate asking the city to disable the surveillance and delete any recordings from it.
Joe Faulds, Chief of Operations for Green Bay, sent a statement in response to the Senate’s letter, which was sent to the city on Monday. The city’s statement reads, “City Hall’s security system is lawful and commonplace. The Wisconsin Senate mischaracterizes the audio devices as “extremely sensitive audio-recording devices” in order to raise questions about its legality. The security cameras are limited to public spaces in City hall without any continuous monitoring by City staff. In the interest of transparency, the City will be taking steps to provide notice at City facilities with similar security systems.”
The Senate’s letter claims the audio surveillance is against state law and violates the state and U.S. constitutions. The letter demanded the city disable the audio surveillance by 5 p.m. Tuesday and delete recordings by Friday at 3 p.m. or a court injunction would be pursued.
City officials admitted to installing microphones in the hallways outside the city clerk’s office, the city council chambers and the mayor’s office sometime between winter 2021 and summer 2022. They say they took this step due to members of the public and staff reporting threatening interactions at city hall.
The issue surfaced during last Tuesday’s city council meeting when Alderperson Chris Wery shared he recently became aware of microphones inside city hall. He demanded the audio surveillance be stopped, citing privacy and legal concerns. Wery also said the equipment was installed without city council members being aware of it.
City officials also defended the use of the microphones after State Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, shared a memo from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council. The city says the memo “did not ‘detail serious legal concerns’ but rather noted that security cameras with audio capabilities do not violate Wisconsin’s Electronic Surveillance Control Law.”
The city first said on Friday it would be putting up signs at city hall, the lobby of the police department and the lobby of the bus station warning of audio surveillance in those locations. As of Tuesday afternoon there were still no signs at city hall.
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he has never heard of a city hall-type building having audio surveillance in his more than 20-year career with the ACLU.
