Understanding Legal Surveillance: What’s Allowed and What’s Not for Private Investigators in Singapore?

Surveillance is a tool that may be ever helpful for safeguarding property, ensuring safety, or sometimes collecting evidence for court proceedings. 

However, as far as legal surveillance is concerned, there are limits that the law has drawn off regarding rights to privacy and preventing violation of rights. Here’s a look at the do’s and don’ts of legal surveillance for detectives.

What is Legal Surveillance?

Legal surveillance can, therefore, be described as any activity of monitoring or observation done legally. It can include video surveillance or sound recording devices, GPS tracking, or similar devices that serve to observe or steal a particular individual or a group of individuals. Legal surveillance is mainly employed during criminal and civil investigations or even for private reasons such as employee monitoring or those who are part of the legal process.

When Is Surveillance Legal for Private Investigators in Singapore?

There are various conditions under which surveillance of a private investigation agency does not break the law: 

Warrants or Court Orders: When investigating crime, the law enforcement agency may sometimes approach the court to issue a warrant for obtaining surveillance evidence. In the warrant, it is mentioned that the activity should not violate any right of privacy. This usually applies to wiretapping and electronic surveillance in a normal sense or other normal redirecting devices.

Public Spaces: Privacy concerns regarding being filmed often have high compliance levels in private spaces, such as the regulation of the use of video surveillance in people’s homes. However, this is not the case in public settings like city streets, parks, supermarkets, and shopping malls. Furthermore, there is a public interest in filming those spaces, so cameras are generally not regulated as long as they do not target people or interfere with their privacy.

Workplace Surveillance: Monitoring employees within the office area, for instance, via cameras, ensures that office workers will be working at maximum productivity while upholding the company rules. Nevertheless, such practices must be within certain limits to avoid violating the privacy of employees, for instance, explaining to employees that they may be within the monitor’s vision.

Consent-Based Surveillance: An example of non-intrusive practises include using a monitoring device such as a camera or a GPS tracker with the owner’s consent, such as not checking the item without the other party’s consent, and allowing the video recording of meetings provided to the participants.

What Are the Consequences of Illegally Monitoring Activities During Private Investigations?

Illegally monitoring activities can yield dire consequences depending on the jurisdiction. In many countries, individuals who engage in illegal surveillance can be charged with stalking, harassment, or even invasion of privacy. Such penalties can result in incarceration or even civil damages. Victims of unscrupulous surveillance may be compensated as well.

Bosses are also restrained in their illegal and unlawful practices, like spying on their employees, since this can lead to lawsuits and financial loss. There are many instances where employees’ privacy has been compromised so severely that the company’s reputation has suffered a lot.

Best Practises for Employing Surveillance Legally in Private Investigation Service

• Annual monitoring by clinical reviewers should occur by a qualified professional who is not part of the treating team. Many risks must be taken into consideration during clinical review, and many best practises are available globally for this purpose.
• Always consult a lawyer before you go ahead with any surveillance action. A legal opinion regarding overhead activities is always a better option.
• Always ensure all proper paperwork concerning surveillance is available. A proper basis for surveillance substantiates the legal and ethical aims, such as a court order or the consent of the neighbouring parties.
• Avoid surveillance of individuals in their homes or other private areas where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Furthermore, volunteers or staff should be notified of the surveillance to allow for legal compliance with the relevant provisions and laws.

BSPI’s Legal Surveillance: Ensuring Compliance and Protecting Privacy

At Baker St. Private Investigator (BSPI), we cover a variety of professional investigations, including legal surveillance, to assist clients in gathering information that is useful in legal cases. As surveillance might be taken as an important activity in the context of law, we must observe the stipulated laws and ethical rules to respect the privacy of other people while working towards the expectations of their clients.

The Relevance of Legal Surveillance for Customers

Our legal surveillance is extremely relevant in numerous legal actions. Here’s why it matters to hire a private investigator:

Case Management: Surveillance captures tangible proof that can be a game changer to a case. Such evidence may range from proving the wrong, such as infidelity, to even demonstrating the commission of a crime. Such evidence is usually very important and relevant to legal procedures.

Counter Claims: Such services can explain how a client’s rights can be exercised in a manner that helps gather evidence that can disprove most unfounded claims and accusations.

Affordability: More often than not, legal surveillance will be cheaper than other means of investigations and consultations, wherein the client will receive the required information without worrying about having a drawn-out process or expensive lawsuits.

The legal surveillance services we offer at BSPI are an excellent option for clients seeking to collect essential evidence for their cases legally. Sensitive to issues of privacy and confidential matters, we employ relevant laws about surveillance and also emphasise morality. 

Corporate or personal, our legal surveillance will deliver the requisite evidence that reinforces the legal position of the clients but also ensures their protection. Contact us today to get answers to all your pressing questions.