Bill held over by committee ups expectation of privacy in locker rooms

When stepping into a changing area most people likely believe they are disrobing and getting dressed in private. However, that is not always the case.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL-Brooklyn Center) sponsors HF1433 that would establish penalties in the interference with privacy statute for persons who knowingly record people in locker rooms, changing rooms or restrooms without consent. Additionally, the offender would need to register as a predatory offender.

Because a fiscal note has not yet been completed, the bill was held over Wednesday by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. However, Committee Chair Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Vernon Center) indicated the bill could be voted on once the fiscal note is received and potentially sent to the House Floor. It has no Senate companion.

“It’s one thing to be viewed in a locker room, it’s another thing to be recorded, and it’s another thing to have your recorded image submitted to others,” Hilstrom said.

The bill stems from a February 2013 case at the YMCA in Andover where a 12-year-old boy entered a bathroom stall to change out of his swimming trunks after a man had followed him around the locker room. While changing, the boy noticed a hand come over the top of the stall. In the hand was a wristwatch that doubled as a video recorder.

With the assistance of video surveillance, a 53-year-old man was identified and a search warrant was later executed at his home where the wristwatch was found. “The watch was then plugged into a computer, he was able to download any of these videos that he had recorded,” said Justin Bloch, a detective with the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office.

“Through the investigation of his computer we found there was a lot of victims … all of them ranging probably from age 6 to age 12 that he had been recording while they were in various states of undress after finishing up at the pool at these places and then go into the locker room, to a place that they felt private — private enough to change — and he would record them.”

The man, who had also been disseminating some videos to others, was ultimately found guilty of only filming the boy in the bathroom stall.

Hilstrom said the judge’s order specifically says that people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a locker room; therefore, the defendant could only be convicted for the boy in the bathroom stall because the youngster took steps to protect himself.