You catch a burglar burglarizing your house, tussle with him and after a violent struggle you knock him, out and restrain him. Before calling the police you decide to take his picture while he is restrained and take a pic of his drivers license and post them on Facebook as a warning to others to watch out for this guy before calling the police.
Have you done anything illegal?
I can’t think of a criminal statute that this would violate, assuming his unconscious state came from your legal actions in protecting yourself. You clearly didn’t have any intention of permanently depriving him of his license; you photographed it and returned it.
There might be some tort regarding invasion of privacy or the like in play, but that’s not my area of expertise.
Don’t hurt him too bad because you’re liable for any injury he incurs on your property.
I could see some namby-pamby liberal judge in New York awarding him damages for uploading his license.
Since the person is innocent until proved guilty, you are under the same defamation constraints as if you had posted the same material about your next door neighbor. Furthermore, you’d be disqualifying from his jury anyone who might have seen or known about that Facebook page.
If you just stick to the facts though, there shouldn’t be any defamation. Putting up a page saying that the person is a dirty, rotten, thief with horrible morals and a questionable pedigree is different than just taking a picture of him in your house and the factual circumstances surrounding it. The former may or may not be defamation but the latter is just basic freedom of speech.
In this case, you are just combining a few rights that everyone has: the right to self-defense as well as making a citizen’s arrest for a felony combined with the freedom to take and post photos of things inside your own house even if they belong to someone else. Combining those activities is just as legal as doing them separately. IANAL but I don’t see anything illegal about it.
Is duplicating a driver’s license illegal in any way? It might not be a crime against the burglar, but could you somehow get into trouble for reproducing a state document without permission? Just a thought.
Judging by the number of businesses that make photocopies of driver’s licenses for whatever purpose they feel like (car, boat or moped rentals, hotel rooms or even job applications among many others), I don’t think there are generally any such laws.
Not to my knowledge, although I haven’t researched the issue.
Had a store near me use to Xerox returned checks and tape them up by the cash register. All info visible. Their idea was it was just a worthless piece of paper. I guess if you didn’t want it up you should have made good your check. It(and the burglar DL posting) may be wrong, I don’t know but they brought it on themselves and I have no sympathy.
They don’t post it, and may be required to destroy it after use. I dunno, I’m probably wrong, but it was a thought. I just remember getting a lecture once that the license belongs to the state, not to me, which is why it can be revoked at any time.
You are wrong.
Totally different.
Also, I don’t think that any state outlaws the copying of any of their documents, except for fraudulent purposes, etc…
As for posting it on Facebook, I can see you getting a pass, as long as you didn’t actually accuse him of a crime, per se. I’m thinking (IANAL) that you could point out that he came into your home without permission, and slipped and fell onto your fist/weapon, and while you put his DL on Facebook in an attempt to locate a next-of-kin who can authorize medical attention, that you mentioned what he did. Just forgot to post the part about looking for medical help in the excitement of the moment. As for invasion of privacy, you may be able to trade out, since he invaded yours by coming into your house uninvited.
Two women stole a $10 from me in Viet Nam–just plucked it out of my hand. I had just taken a photo of them (with their consent), so I posted it with the caption “$10 Photo of Thieves.”
Unless the DL fell out of his pocket open on to the floor, wouldn’t that constitute an illegal search?
What would I know? IANAL.
The 4th Amendment is applicable when the state searches you not when a private citizen does. I could see an overzealous prosecutor charging the homeowner with robbery though.
I wonder if some of the people who have answered the question come from Great Britain. In the United States, if I take a picture of a burglar after I subdue him in my home and post it online it’s up to the burglar to take me to civil court, demonstrate that I intentionally lied, and show that this lie has caused him some sort of tangible damage. Ridiculous things happen from time to time but I doubt it would ever make it to court.
I can keep the money in his wallet though, right?
In one of his books, attorney Melvin Belli told about a barber who displayed a shaving mug in his shop window. The mug read, “John Smith owes this shop $1.15 for shaving.” (The book was published in 1956.) Smith did owe the $1.15, and it was long overdue, but he felt that this was the wrong way to collect it. He brought suit, and collected–far more than $1.15.
I’ve seen businesses in the US tape the bounced checks they receive up on a wall for public viewing, the idea I guess being to shame the miscreant into paying. That doesn’t sound too different.
Definitely fodder for lawsuits, Sam.
I can’t think of any tort either. The invasion of privacy torts are:
#1 and #2 are clearly out as the burglar came into YOUR home. You are publishing his public activities. #3 and the defamation torts aren’t applicable as he would have to prove falsehood. I suppose if you made money off of the posts, he could sue for #4, but probably not. It’s not the fact that his name was Bob Smith that made your post valuable, but the simple fact that it identified a particular burglar.
I don’t see a crime or a tort here.
I was speculating about the “private facts” one might glean from the license: height, weight, address, organ donor.