State gives out cameras to record elder-care workers

MADISON, Wis. — When women at a group home for cognitively disabled elderly in Green Bay heard that 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 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 like this one, in 2016, unfold every year across the nation, often going unresolved because of the 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 is prompting protests by the elder-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.”