HomeMy WebLinkAboutMC-1314
Adopted: September 21, 2009
Effective: October 22, 2009
1 ORDINANCE NO. MC-1314
2 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO ADDING SAN BERNARDINO
3 MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 9.58, RELATING TO THE USE OF PRN ATE
4 SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT
5
6 The Mayor and Common Council of the City of San Bernardino do ordain as follows:
7 WHEREAS, Section 40(z) of the Charter of the City of San Bernardino vests the Mayor
8 and Common Council with the power to make and enforce all laws and regulations with respect
9 to municipal affairs, subject only to the restrictions and limitations provided in the Charter or by
10 state law; and
11 WHEREAS, Article 1, section 1 ofthe California Constitution provides that all people
12 have inalienable rights, among which is the right to privacy; and
13 WHEREAS, the inappropriate use of private surveillance equipment in or adjacent to
14 residential areas of the City of San Bernardino has the potential to interfere with the right of
15 citizens of the City to privacy in their use of their residential property; and
16 WHEREAS, it is the intent of the Mayor and Common Council in enacting the following
17 Ordinance to prohibit intrusion upon the privacy of citizens in the use of their residential
18 property, without impairing the rights of other citizens to protect their own property through the
19 use of private surveillance equipment;
20 NOW THEREFORE, THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
21 SAN BERNARDINO DO ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
22
Section 1.
The Mayor and Common Council find that the above-stated Recitals are
23 true and hereby adopt and incorporate them herein.
24
Section 2.
San Bernardino Municipal Code Chapter 9.58, Private Surveillance
25 Equipment, is hereby added to read as follows:
26 "Chapter 9.58 Private Surveillance Equipment.
27 "9.58.010 Purpose.
28 This Chapter is intended to prohibit intrusion upon the privacy of citizens in the use of
-1-
MC-1314
1 residential property, without impairing the rights of other citizens to protect their own property
2 through the use of private surveillance equipment.
3 "9.58.020 Private Surveillance Equipment.
4 "As used in this Chapter, private surveillance equipment includes any device used by a
5 private party that enables the user to observe or record the activities of, or hear or intercept the
6 communications of, other persons.
7 "9.58.030 Location of Private Surveillance Equipment.
8 "No private surveillance equipment, as defined in Section 9.58.020, shall be located on
9 any property that the owner of the equipment does not own or have the legal right to possess.
10 "9.58.040 Positioning of Private Surveillance Equipment.
11 "No private surveillance equipment shall be positioned in such a way as to intrude upon
12 the privacy of the occupier(s) of any residential property other than the user's property.
13 Circumstances in which such an intrusion shall be deemed to occur are anyone or more of the
14 following:
15 "A. The equipment is positioned so as to enable the user to observe, or to receive or
16 capture a visual image of, any part of the other property that is not readily visible from the public
17 right of way.
18 "B. The equipment is positioned so as to enable the user to hear or intercept
19 communications occurring on the other property that are not readily audible from outside the
20 property without artificial amplification.
21 "C. The equipment is positioned so as to maintain under continual surveillance any
22 part of the other property, whether or not that part of the property is visible from the public right
23 of way. As used in this provision, continual surveillance means any surveillance that lasts for
24 more than 30 seconds at a time.
25 "D. The equipment is positioned in such a way that the surveillance it provides is
26 primarily surveillance of the other property and not of the user's property.
27 "E. Any other circumstance in which the use of the equipment constitutes "(1)
28 intrusion into a private place, conversation or matter, (2) in a manner highly offensive to a
-2-
MC-1314
1 reasonable person." (Shulman v. Group W Productions, Inc. (1998) 18 Cal.4th 200, 231, 74
2 Cal.Rptr.2d 843, 955 P.2d 469.)
3 "9.58.050 Penalty.
4 "A violation of this Section is a misdemeanor or an infraction and is punishable under
5 Chapter 1.12 or Chapter 9.93 of this Code, or under both of those Chapters.
6 "9.58.060 Severability.
7 The provisions of this Section are severable, and if any provision is held to be invalid the
8 validity of the remaining provisions shall not be affected."
9
10 Section 3. This Ordinance is based upon the recitals and findings set forth above,
11 and the accompanying Staff Report, and is adopted pursuant to the authority granted to the City
12 of San Bernardino in Article 11, Section 7 of the California Constitution, and Sections 30 and
13 40(z) of the Charter of the City of San Bernardino.
14 Section 4. The Mayor and Common Council find that this Ordinance is exempt from
15 the California Environment Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with the CEQA Guidelines,
16 California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Section 1 5061 (b)(3), as it can be seen with certainty
17 that there is no possibility that the activity permitted by this Ordinance may have a significant
18 effect on the environment.
19 Section 5. Severability. If any section, subsection, subdivision, sentence, clause or
20 phrase in this Ordinance or any part thereof is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, invalid
21 or ineffective by any court of competent jurisdiction, that determination shall not affect the
22 validity or effectiveness of the remaining portions of this Ordinance or any part thereof. The
23 Mayor and Common Council hereby declare that they would have adopted this Ordinance and
24 each section, sentence, clause, and part of this Ordinance despite the fact that one or more
25 sections, sentences, clauses, or parts of this Ordinance is declared invalid.
26 III
27 III
28 III
-3-
MC-1314
1 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO ADDING SAN BERNARDINO
2 MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 9.58, RELATING TO THE USE OF PRN ATE
3 SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT
4 I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing Ordinance was duly adopted by the Mayor and
5 Council ofthe City of San Bernardino at a igiUlar meeting thereof, held on the 21st day
6 of September
, 2009, by the following vote, to wit:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
COUNCIL MEMBERS: AYES NAYS ABSTAIN ABSENT
ESTRADA ~
BAXTER ~
BRINKER ~
SHORETT ~
KELLEY ~
JOHNSON x
MCCAMMACK x
-
~~_h~
Rac 1 Clark, City Clerk
The foregoing Ordinance is hereby approved this Q;).~ay of September
,2009.
~
J. MO , ayor
an Bernardino
Approved as to form:
JAMES F. PENMAN, City Attorney
-4-