Nurses at a hospital in Los Angeles say they have been angered by the discovery of hidden surveillance cameras installed by hospital officials in their break room and other locations. A nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital noticed wires dangling from a wall clock in the break room and discovered a pen-sized camera above the number “9,” according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.
Nurses later found 16 additional CCTV cameras hidden in clocks in lounges, a fitness center, a conference room and a pharmacy. “We feel they have violated our rights and our privacy,” the nurse who discovered the first camera, Sussette Nacorda, told the Times.
Legal experts have told SSI that cameras are legal in any environment except those where there is a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” The nurses say some of the cameras had partial views of locker rooms and a visitors’ area used by mothers to breastfeed.
The hospital says the cameras were installed after complaints by employees that their break rooms were vulnerable to burglaries. “Our goal is not at all to spy on nurses,” said the hospital’s vice president of business, Sammy Feuerlicht. The hospital adds the cameras had yet to be activated and were planned not to be until signs indicating their presence were added.
