The state of New York is cracking down on the use of surveillance cameras that look like smoke detectors. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says in a recent press release that he will investigate retailers selling smoke detector cameras in which the smoke detectors don’t function.

In February, Spitzer reached an agreement with Tonawanda, N.Y.-based electronic security retailer Spy Outlet to recall the non-functioning smoke-detector cameras it had sold and to discontinue the sale of such equipment. However, according to its Web site, Spy Outlet is continuing to sell smoke-detector cameras where the smoke detector does function.

“A smoke detector has one purpose and that is to protect people against fires,” Spitzer said in the press release. “Keeping non-working fire detectors with hidden cameras off the market protects the public from a false sense of security and a very real invasion of their privacy.”

New York passed a law in 2003 establishing criminal penalties for the use of an electronic device to capture visual images of a person where one had a “reasonable expectation” of privacy. “Stephanie’s Law” was passed following an incident where a Long Island woman was secretly videotaped by her landlord using a hidden video camera in a smoke detector above her bed.

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