The California Supreme Court held held that employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace, but that right has limits. And it doesn’t prevent employers from conducting some hidden surveillance in an employee’s office for “legitimate business concerns.”

“An employer may have sound reasons for monitoring the workplace,” Justice Marvin Baxter wrote for a unanimous court, “and an intrusion upon the employee’s reasonable privacy expectations may not be egregious or actionable under the particular circumstances.”

This ruling came about in October 2002 when office manager Abigail Hernandez and administrative assistant Maria Lopez discovered hidden video equipment in the office they shared at Pasadena’s Hillsides Children’s Center, a facility that houses abused children. Executive Director John Hitchcock had installed the equipment in an unsuccessful attempt to catch someone who had been viewing pornography on Lopez’s computer in the wee hours of the morning.

Hitchcock was particularly concerned because many of the 66 boys and girls at the center had been the victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. No one was ever apprehended.

Neither Hernandez nor Lopez were suspects, and the camera — activated only after work hours — never recorded them. Nonetheless, they were distraught upon discovering the camera and sued for invasion of privacy.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge C. Edward Simpson granted summary judgment to the center. But Los Angeles’ 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed in 2006, holding that the mere placement of the surveillance equipment in the women’s office without their knowledge invaded their privacy.

On Monday, the Supreme Court justices split the difference, saying that while they could understand the two women’s “dismay,” the placement of the hidden camera wasn’t egregious, and the employer had a valid reason for doing what he did.

This court decision has given employers the right to use surveillance systems and hidden cameras for legitimate business concerns.

Cleveland Sergeant Timothy Richissin has been  charged with two counts of voyeurism in Medina County Common Pleas Court.

Prosecutors say last year, Richissin put a small hidden camera inside the bathroom of the Hinckley warehouse where he ran a business.

Earlier this year, he was charged with tampering with evidence, voyeurism, obstructing official business and possessing criminal tools, after a female employee found the camera and called police.

Richissin plead not guilty to the new charges. He also hired a new attorney to represent him.

Now, this brings me to the point of why I told you about this cop.  Everything has the potential for good and evil.  Some states have restricted stun guns and TASERS because they can be used for harm.  This completely disregards the potential of a good person using stun guns or TASERS to defend themselves.  Its a convenient restriction made by politicians looking for votes.  If they were serious about not allowing items that could harm people when in the wrong hands, they would have outlawed baseball bats.  Before stun guns were illegal and there were criminal stats on them, there were 30 times more muggings done with baseball bats in New York than with stun guns.

Same thing with hidden cameras.  Yes, you have jerks like this Cleveland cop who misuse the technology, but you also have mothers using it to watch over their children and home and business owners using it to watch over their property.  Thats why I sell them.  For the good they can do.  I will not be dissuaded from selling hidden cameras because some idiots out there will use them for evil.  Their use for good is too important.

Women must derive some sort of comfort from them, and all that other junk they bring with them when you get married that no one ever tells you anything about. One day you have a perfectly uncluttered bathroom, and then…poof…it’s gone.

But the mere innocuousness of your standard tissue box makes it the perfect place to put a hidden camera. I don’t think I have ever touched one of the many tissue boxes in this house, and don’t have any plans to start. I mean, I have pulled a tissue from time to time, maybe to clean my glasses, something like that, but I have never checked to see what the tissue level was, or refilled one, ever. That’s my wife’s turf, and she’s welcome to it.

I guess I kinda view a tissue box the same way I would view diaper changing, and it’s not high on my “want to do before I die” list.

I think most guys feel the same way. We don’t have opinions on things like tissue boxes, soap dispensers, towel colors, how many pillows should be on the bed and whether the sheets and pillowcases should match or contrast. It’s just not a guy thing, which makes The Tissue Box Hidden Camera the perfect setup for keeping an eye on what’s going on in your home when you’re not there.

The chance that if someone breaks into your home they would look for a hidden camera in a tissue box are slim to almost non-existent. It just wouldn’t happen. He’d have no idea he’s being watched and recorded.

And later, when the cops pick him up, maybe he’ll enjoy seeing himself rummaging through your home.  Of course, he’ll probably be saying, “Well, yeah, he looks like me, but that’s not me!”  And I’m sure the cops, prosecutor, judge and jury will get a big laugh out of that.

He’ll have a great story to tell when he’s in jail.