A D.C. public housing resident sued the city’s housing authority and D.C. police earlier this month, saying that “disproportionate surveillance” at her complex is an invasion of privacy.
The encounter turned violent, the suit said, as the security officer pinned Pondexter-Moore against the building and “slammed [her] son against a wall” when he tried to intervene. Minutes later, eight D.C. police officers showed up at the complex to arrest the mother and son, who spent the night in jail as the cameras were installed, according to the suit.
“The large number of cameras in such a small area creates a level of surveillance that is highly offensive in a residential context where residents are carrying out their personal daily routines, including, among other things: sleeping, eating, raising their children, gathering, and bathing,” the suit says.