You would never think that a law would be needed to video tape on your own property, but an online news article reports a NH Legislator wants to make sure the law is clear.
A Nashua man was actually arrested after his home security camera made video and audio recordings of detectives who had come looking for his teenage son. Felony wiretapping charges against him were later dropped.
Rep. Dudley Dumaine and five other sponsors introduced House Bill 97, which would add an exception to the state’s wiretapping law, letting property owners record their own premises, with or without warning.
NEW LEGISLATION
NH is about to adopt new employee classification program.
Because of the large numbers of so-called temporary workers or “independent contractors” in the Investigative and Security field, new Legislation has passed the House Ways & Means Committee that directly addresses the practice of persons being called Independent Contractors rather than investigative employees by unscrupulous employers. This is when an Agency uses a perosn as an employee but calls the person an Independent Contractor, thus avoiding taxes and insurance.
Rep Jordan Ulery, a member of Ways & Means and a Licensed Professional Investigator, was instrumental in including language that attacked the issue.
Rep. Ulery is the former Secretary of the NH League of Investigators, Inc. A former member of the House Criminal justice Committe he was assigned to Ways and means this year. This is a very powerful committee and an assignment ot it is often viewed as a promotion.
HB 776 gains momentum in NH as summer approaches.
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The current regulatory scheme in NH has no teeth to it. It is archaic. The New Hampshire League of Investigators (www.nhli.net) is at the end of a several year quest to improve the regulation.
HB 776 is modeled after the current regulatory scheme in Vermont, in place for over 20 years.
Several recent high level meetings have brought this another step closer to reality.
The Legislative Committtee hearing the bill is in favor of its passage and the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner of Safety are pushing for passage.
The bill would create a regulatory board which would oversee the profession under the direction of the Department of Safety.
The process hit a bump in the road, but a small one, when several PIs appeared and testified in oppostion to the bill. Thier opposition was not well stated, nor well received.
The current regulatory agency is working with the NH League to finalize the wording.
A big plus is the fact the bill is supported by the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, an organization with a lot of Legislative clout in NH.
The NHLI thanks the Dept of Safety and the ED&A Committee of the NH Legislature for their hard work to make this a reality.