Town Uses Google Earth to Look for Illegal Pools
Time to get a grass-patterned cover for your pool.
Who wouldn't love to have their own private swimming pool in their backyard? Unfortunately, before you can build one, you need a permit from the city.
The town of Riverhead on Long Island is putting free technology to use and is employing the satellite images of Google Earth to spot swimming pools that are set up illegally without permits.
So far Riverhead has found about 250 pools without permits, leading to $75,000 in fees collected so far.
Riverhead's chief building inspector Leroy Barnes Jr. said that permits are required to ensure that all pools meet safety requirements.
Privacy advocates, however, say that using satellite images to sniff out pool permit-dodgers is a big brother move, especially by using an educational tool like Google Earth in a policing manner.
(Source: AP/WSJ.)
BS.
its irrelevant what crime a person is or is not guilty of, this is the equivalent of planting a camera in a persons home to catch them illegally downloading movies. i'm sure this cannot be legal.
I support this.
If I want to build a pool in my backyard, they only thing I'll do is call the city to make sure there isn't any water/gas pipes (which shouldn't even be a issue, because they put them under the roads here).
I fully, honestly believe that, if I think a law is complete BS, then I'll ignore it (it's illegal to spit on the ground or even a trashcan in my city).
This sounds like someone is just trying to catch lawbreakers, not actually trying to catch those who are harming society.
No, what they really want is to add the value to your home to increase their tax revenue. I can see having an inspection of your pool, but its pretty bad when you need a permit just to change shingles on your home.
Using google earth could be seen as an invasion of privacy as stated prior. As for the inspectors "walking by" if they came on your property they would be tresspassing and we all know how legal that is. I'll stick with the catch me if you can slogan for BS township ideas like this.
Ultimately, you can choose which laws to obey. But this doesn't preclude you from those laws. These individuals committed crimes. They must pay the penalties according to those offenses. They are harming society because they are not following the letter of the law. Case in point - if your child dies as a result of these standards they didn't follow, that inspectors would have deemed hazardous and requiring correction, then the onus falls on them who broke the law to pay the price. The law is the law.
If you decide you are above the law, and start to choose which laws to obey, how many more laws will you begin to ignore as your morals degrade. As the only perfect man said when he walked this earth: "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."
Pools often decrease home value. The permit (and inspection process) are to ensure that the enclosure for the pool is up to code. That is so that when your 2 year old wanders into your neighbors yard where they just installed a pool with no fence, you won't find them floating face down.
If it can't be seen from the road, it's over stepping their jurisdiction. Maybe they should buy a helicopter.
In some towns/cities/etc, the police/regulatory agency/etc are restricted to what's in view without the homeowner's conscent. So, say they walk past your house...you have an "illegal" pool in your backyard. If it's in "plain view" of the street....you're SOL. If you have a 6" fence blocking the view of said pool, the police/regulatary agency/etc is SOL because it'd be considered trespassing for them to enter the property without your permission. The same should apply to the use of Google Earth. You have no given Google concent to photograph your property, thus making the action an invasion of privacy. Which would prohibit the police/regulatory agency/etc from legally using Google Earth to further invade your privacy.
BTW, Google has been sued over photography people's property without conscent in the past....and LOST. By law, in most states anyway, if there's a "No Trespassing" sign in place...it's illegal to enter the property in any manor...including aerial/orbital photographs.
its not like it affects anything
Correction:
"Riverhead's chief building inspector Leroy Barnes Jr. said that permits are required to ensure that...we can properly tax and fee all residents to our greatest extent."