GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – An attorney for the Wisconsin State Senate has sent a four-page letter to Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich, demanding the city remove all audio surveillance in city hall and destroy all recordings captured from the surveillance.
Ryan Walsh, a partner of the law firm Eimer Stahl LLP, asks the city to provide assurances by 5 p.m. Tuesday that all audio surveillance has stopped. He also asks all recordings to be destroyed by 3 p.m. Friday.
Walsh says the State Senate will pursue an injunction if the deadlines are not met, saying “we will be forced to move a court for an immediate order ending this unlawful conduct.”
City officials admitted to installing microphones in the hallways outside the city clerk’s office, the city council chambers and the mayor’s office sometime between winter 2021 and summer 2022. They say they took this step due to members of the public and staff reporting threatening interactions at city hall.
The issue surfaced during last Tuesday’s city council meeting when Alderperson Chris Wery shared he recently became aware of microphones inside city hall. He demanded the audio surveillance be stopped, citing privacy concerns because there were no signs warning of the audio recording. Wery also said the equipment was installed without city council members being aware of it.
Walsh’s letter to the city claims the audio surveillance is unlawful under the Wisconsin Electronic Surveillance Control Law and violates the Wisconsin and U.S. Constitutions.
“This surveillance activity is not only disturbing. It is unlawful,” reads part of Walsh’s letter. “The State Legislature, from which the City of Green Bay derives its authority, has never delegated this power to it. And it never would.”
The city defended its use of the microphones after State Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, shared a memo from the Wisconsin Legislative Council. The city says the memo “did not ‘detail serious legal concerns’ but rather noted that security cameras with audio capabilities do not violate Wisconsin’s Electronic Surveillance Control Law.”
In a press release issued late last Friday afternoon, the city also said the footage is not continuously monitored by city staff but has “been reviewed and proved valuable in gathering information about accidents, altercations and damage to property at city hall.”
The city says “signage is not required in these circumstances, but city administration has decided to install signage.”
Last week, FOX 11 spoke with Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, about this issue. Stanley told us he has never heard of a city hall-type building having audio surveillance in his more than 20-year career with the ACLU.
