Concerned about elder abuse, states loan out secret cameras

MADISON, Wis. — When women at a group home for cognitively disabled elderly in Green Bay heard the home’s old proprietor was moving back in, they were terrified. One swore to the home’s supervisor that she wouldn’t allow it: John, she said, was “dirty.”

“I don’t like what he does to us,” she said. Her housemate quickly shushed her, saying she wasn’t supposed to tell.

Police were called in but struggled to build a case against the man. The women — who had to be spoken to as if they were children — made accusations, recanted them and then made them again.

Many cases such as this one in 2016 unfold every year across the nation, often going unresolved because of the special difficulties that make elderly people especially vulnerable to mistreatment or crime. Now Wisconsin is taking a radical step to curb abuse and get reliable evidence for prosecutions — handing out free surveillance cameras to family members so they can secretly record caregivers suspected of hurting their loved ones.

Attorney General Brad Schimel said it should make preying on the elderly harder to get away with. “Anybody caring for a senior probably should think if they’re misbehaving they could get caught for it,” he said.

But Wisconsin’s program, only the second of its kind, is prompting protests by the elderly care industry and privacy advocates who consider it a disturbing government foray into private spying.

“Now people are recording stuff for the cops,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to protect privacy as technology evolves. “There’s no oversight or governance. [The programs] definitely create concern about expansion of government surveillance into private spaces.”

Schimel noted the cameras are loaned for only 30 days and people already could place a camera if they suspected abuse. Agency officials have spent $1,200 on equipment to start the program on a pilot basis.

Elder abuse can include beatings, molestation, theft of jewelry or credit cards and neglect.