A man who was arrested after he used his home security system to videotape police at his door last year has inspired a bill to let property owners record audio and video at their homes without notice.

Michael Gannon, 40, of Nashua was arrested after his home security camera made video and audio recordings of detectives who had come looking for his teenage son. Felony wiretapping charges against him were later dropped.

Gannon was arrested after he brought the recordings to the police station to complain that a detective had been rude to him.

The police later returned Gannon's cameras and recording equipment but did not give back the tapes, saying they were illegal recordings.

Last week, Rep. Dudley Dumaine, a Republican from Auburn, and five other sponsors introduced House Bill 97, which would add an exception to the state's wiretapping law, letting property owners record their own premises, with or without warning.

"This bill creates an exception to the violation of privacy and wiretapping and eavesdropping statutes to allow any person to conduct, without notice, audio or video recordings, or both, on his or her private property and curtilage for security purposes," the bill's description states.

"It's just common sense," Dumaine said. "I can't picture anybody not believing that it's okay to protect your property."

He said that, despite working as a police officer in Keene and a private investigator, he wasn't aware of the wiretap law.

"If somebody had come up to me and asked, 'Can I put cameras up on my house?' I would have said, 'Absolutely.' "

Dumaine crafted his bill so property owners would no longer need to post warnings of recording on the premises, as has become common in stores that use video cameras for anti-theft purposes. Warnings only lead to criminals stealing recording equipment or finding other ways to subvert it, Dumaine said.

Dumaine said he also plans to sponsor a bill to make it legal to make video and audio recordings of people in public settings, where they have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

That bill was motivated by a case in the Keene area, in which a motorist was charged for turning on a tape recorder after being pulled over by the police, Dumaine said.