Alleged UA Twitter Voyeur Claims Innocence; Police Investigate
Police say someone posting pictures on Twitter of university students working out without them knowing about it may be committing a felony, while the Twitter user maintains his or her innocence.
“The police department is investigating these activities to see if they cross the bridge to a criminal offense,” said Lt. Gary Crain with the University of Arkansas Police Department. “Once that information is gathered, that information will be submitted to a prosecuting attorney’s office, and then that prosecutor will make a decision whether or not to file charges.”
The Twitter handle in question, @HPERprobsUARK, takes photographs of students at the HPER building, the university’s recreation center, without students knowing about it. Included on the Twitter page are pictures of students in the center’s exercise room.
The handle’s user stated on Twitter that their images are legal because they are taken in a public place, even if students do not know they are being photographed. At least two previous images from the user showed center-goers in the HPER building’s locker room, but those have been taken down.
The user stated he or she spoke with campus police about two weeks ago, and police approved of their activity as long as they took the locker room photographs down. Police could not confirm whether that is true.
The Twitter handle may still be breaking the law, though, under state felony voyeurism statutes. Arkansas Code 5-16-101 states, “It is unlawful to use any camera…or any other image recording device for the purpose of secretly observing…a person present in (any) structure, if that person…has a reasonable expectation of privacy (and/or) has not consented to the observation.”
5NEWS tried to reach out to @HPERprobsUARK on Wednesday, but Tweets to the handle went unanswered.
“The two that were posted early on of men in the locker room. The issue is that photos should not be taken where privacy is (expected),” the handle Tweeted. “The other pics of people about the HPER and campus are completely legal because they’re in a public space. Only video is ill.”
Some students who talked to 5NEWS said they think taking pictures without people knowing is creepy and an invasion of their privacy, although it will not stop them from working out at the center.
