After a police-issued body-worn camera was found hidden in an unmarked Pittsburgh police vehicle, investigators dug deeper and determined that multiple officers were recorded without their knowledge on cameras that were allegedly placed inside unmarked police vehicles by a now-retired police commander. The former commander, Matthew Lackner, 50, who retired when the investigation was launched, has been charged with four third-degree felony counts of interception, disclosure or use of wire, electronic or oral communications, the Associated Press reports.
Investigators allege that Lackner used at least 11 police-issued body-worn cameras to record officers multiple times between Sept. 27 and Oct. 4, capturing about 75 hours of recordings. Lackner told officers he made the recordings as part of a federal investigation of an unnamed person, but federal authorities had confirmed that no such probe authorized that kind of activity. Lackner, a 29-year veteran of the force,0 was commander of Pittsburgh police department's Zone 2. Pennsylvania is a two-party consent state, which means all parties involved in a conversation must consent before a conversation can be recorded. Police officers and other law enforcement officials also cannot conduct or monitor these types of recordings without “Class A” certification, which Lackner did not have, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.