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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina General Assembly permits electronic monitoring in nursing and adult care homes under the G.U.A.R.D. Act
Last action · April 1, 2025: Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action)Sponsors: David Willis and 8 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina House Bill 591 allows nursing home and adult care home residents to install and use electronic monitoring devices in their rooms at their own expense starting October 1, 2025. Facilities are prohibited from refusing admission or discharging residents over monitoring requests and must provide power sources and mounting space. Recordings from these devices are made admissible in civil and criminal court actions, and facility operators face misdemeanor penalties for violations or tampering.
Residents gain the legal right to record their private living spaces to ensure personal safety, while facility operators face criminal misdemeanor charges, fines up to $2,000, and up to a year of imprisonment for obstructing devices or retaliating against monitoring requests.
- The General Assembly of North Carolina is the state's bicameral legislature responsible for enacting statutory laws. context
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Nursing home and adult care home residents
Residents gain the legal right to install electronic monitoring devices in their rooms at their own expense and have their recordings admitted as evidence in court proceedings.
Nursing home and adult care home operators
Facility operators must accommodate monitoring requests, provide power sources and mounting space, refrain from retaliatory discharges or admission refusals, and face Class A1 misdemeanor penalties for violations or device tampering.
Key Facts
- Residents of nursing homes, combination homes, and adult care homes are permitted to monitor their rooms using electronic monitoring devices at their own expense.
- Residents or their legal representatives must post a conspicuous notice on the door of the room stating that an electronic monitoring device is in use.
- Facilities are prohibited from refusing admission to an individual or discharging a current resident due to a request to install an electronic monitoring device.
- Facilities must make reasonable physical accommodations, including providing access to power sources, internet if available, and a secure mounting place for devices.
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- Facility contracts cannot include provisions that purport to waive or modify a resident's monitoring rights.
- Recordings created by electronic monitoring devices are admissible in civil and criminal actions in North Carolina courts, subject to the rules of evidence.
- Operating a facility in violation of the monitoring statute is a Class A1 misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $2,000, imprisonment up to one year, or both.
- Willfully tampering with, obstructing, or destroying an electronic monitoring device without consent is a Class A1 misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $2,000, imprisonment up to 90 days, or both.
- The act takes effect on October 1, 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays for the installation and maintenance of the electronic monitoring device?
Can a nursing home refuse to admit someone because they want to use a camera in their room?
Are video or audio recordings from these devices admissible in court?
What happens if someone deliberately destroys or tampers with a resident's monitoring device?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
6 actions- Apr 1, 2025HouseRe-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 1, 2025HouseWithdrawn From Com
- Apr 1, 2025HouseSerial Referral To Judiciary 2 Stricken
- Apr 1, 2025HouseRef to the Com on Health, if favorable, Judiciary 2, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 1, 2025HousePassed 1st Reading
- Mar 31, 2025HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Establishment of Statutory Surveillance Rights in Care Facilities
The G.U.A.R.D. Act shifts North Carolina law to explicitly guarantee residents the right to install private surveillance devices and makes those recordings admissible in judicial proceedings while penalizing facility obstruction.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy45Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz50Current news / social attention level
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