CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Technology advancements are making it easier for peeping Toms to spy on people and kids.
The average American is recorded 238 times a week, according to Safety.com, but that number does not include hidden cameras.
Inappropriately recording someone without their knowledge is a criminal act known as voyeurism.
Those caught committing voyeurism are often charged with a misdemeanor and get little or no jail time.
Marty Worley, 22, has been arrested three times in the past two years for secretly taking pictures of girls, according to court records.
In one of those cases, investigators said he was caught taking up-skirt photos of a shopper without their knowledge at a Tri-State Target.
Worley is just one of several local men recently arrested and charged with voyeurism.
Alexander Claspill is accused of secretly filming women in a hospital bathroom where he worked. Court records show he is facing 19 charges.
Former Vevay officer, Kyle Davis, is facing charges for recording an underage girl with a hidden camera in his bathroom during a birthday party, per the Madison Police Department.
In all of those cases, according to investigators, the suspects used cell phones to record the illegal images.
Local attorney Christopher McDowell says identifying and prosecuting these cases can be tricky.
“In my experience, they’re detected one of two ways: The old-fashioned way, somebody sees the person peeping in the window. The more common way today is to find the device that the woman normally sees, the camera, and goes and finds the camera and once she’s found the camera, they will look to see who put the camera there,” McDowell explains.
In Clermont County, FOX19 NOW found that 10 voyeurism charges were filed between 2020 and 2024.
In Hamilton County, the number sits at 47.
It is unclear how many repeat offenders there are, but court records do show Worley has been charged in at least three separate crimes in the last two years.
That leads us to ask: how is someone able to commit the same crime in such a short amount of time?
“The lowest level is a misdemeanor of the third degree, which is 60 days, up to 60 days in jail,” explains McDowell. The highest level, if the victim is a minor, somebody under 18, it’s a felony of the fifth degree, which is six months to 18 months in jail or prison.”
Video voyeurism can be a felony in some states, but most states often charge offenders with a misdemeanor and don’t have increasing penalties.
This makes it easier for repeat offenders to commit these crimes again.
“OVI or DUI, it’s called OVI. In Ohio, you have advocacy groups behind those offenses, Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” says McDowell. “You have an offense, therefore, that has a higher criminal penalty than maybe it would otherwise. Here, there’s no organization. No one wants to be normally you think part of an organization of victims of voyeurism.”
FOX19 NOW took this issue to current state representative and former Cincinnati police officer, Cindy Abrams, who chairs Ohio’s Criminal Justice Committee.
She sent a statement saying, “I am absolutely open to consider scathing penalties for repeat offenders of voyeurism.”
Tech expert Dave Hatter explains the dangers that come with advancing technology.
“These devices, in some cases are like the size of a grain of rice,” Hatter describes. “Now you can get a full-fledged video camera that’s very small, you know, it has audio capabilities, in many cases, and to your point, you know, because of Bluetooth, because of WiFi, you don’t have to provide power to these things necessarily.”
A quick search online yields dozens of hidden cameras that anyone can buy.
Some are disguised as alarm clocks, phone chargers, and even pens with many costing less than $40.
That is why Hatter recommends unplugging and removing anything you’re unsure about.
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