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Article Courtesy of ABC
Action News
By
Adam Walser
Published May 9, 2023
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WATCH VIDEO |
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RUSKIN — A Hillsborough County woman said the owners of her mobile home park
forced her to take down her security cameras within seven days, claiming she was
breaking the law.
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But the ABC Action News I-Team has learned where and how you
can use security cameras is not always clear in Florida.
“I had a camera right here,” said Joni Evans, who lives in
the Captain’s Landing Mobile Home Park in Ruskin. “And there
was another camera right here.”
Evans said she bought the cameras more than six years ago
after someone burglarized her tool shed, painting a racial
slur and cutting down her pride flag.
“It had my wife just thoroughly upset. It had me upset,”
Evans said.
Evans made sure every inch of the outside of her mobile home
was covered by video cameras.
“I had a total of 10 cameras,” she said.
Without cameras, Evans no longer feels safe
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A Hillsborough County woman said the owners of her
mobile home park forced her to take down her security cameras within
seven days, claiming she was breaking the law.
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Now screw holes and circles of mismatched paint are the only remaining
traces of her once-elaborate security system.
Her mobile home park sent a notice in April ordering her to remove the
cameras within seven days.
“They just came out with the rules the 10th of this month. Prior to that,
there has been no rules,” Evans said.
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She took down her cameras rather than risk being evicted.
Evans, a disabled veteran, now lives alone after the recent
death of her wife.
She said without cameras, she no longer feels safe.
"It’s caused a lot of stress. I’ve had an upset stomach ever
since this has been going on,” she said.
On the notice, the park owners said they were requiring
residents to take down cameras because recording audio and
video violates Florida law.
Expectation of privacy
Attorney Jon Ellis said tenants’ rights in a private mobile
home park like Evans’ differ from those tenants have in
co-ops or communities governed by a homeowners association.
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But the ABC Action News I-Team has learned where and
how you can use security cameras is not always clear in Florida.
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“In a private company that owns the park, they can set their own rules,” Ellis
said.
But he said even though Florida is one of 16 two-party consent states, using a
video camera that records audio isn’t automatically a violation.
“When you have a sign that specifically says heads up… we are recording audio,
that starts to remove any type of expectation of privacy you may have,” Ellis
said.
Evans said she has multiple signs warning visitors that she is recording audio
and video.
And she said her cameras only pick up the voices of people in her yard.
The Florida law that regulates video cameras deals primarily with video
voyeurism.
“What you can’t do in Florida is face the video camera in an area where someone
has an expectation of privacy,” Ellis said.
Those areas include your neighbors' backyards or bedroom windows.
Evans believes she was targeted because she caught park management under her
home and in her backyard without her permission.
Owners say it's a felony to record audio.
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