BOSTON (AP) – Turnpike Chairman John Cogliano ordered six hidden digital cameras removed from the Turnpike’s Boston offices Friday after they were discovered located in fake ceiling fire detectors in hallways and open work areas.

The cameras were installed by former Turnpike Chairman Matthew Amorello and linked back to a monitor in cabinet located in a storage room near Amorello’s office.

“We are presently reviewing the rationale and reason for these cameras and looking to determine what purpose they served,” Cogliano said in an e-mail sent to workers Friday.

Amorello’s lawyer Andrew Good issued a statement Friday saying the cameras were installed in 2002 to protect sensitive information like financial data and real estate planning information, which could be exploited if obtained improperly.

He said the cameras are triggered by motion sensors during non-business hours and that the security system only provided video and not audio surveillance. Current wiretapping laws bar the secret recording of conversations but do not apply to images.

“These security precautions are common and appropriate,” Good said in the statement.

Recordings played for reporters Friday appeared to show the cameras running throughout the work day. One segment appeared to be from 10:30 a.m. on July 10. A wall clock is visible and shows the same time as the time on the digital recording. The recording shows employees working, carrying files and talking.

Cogliano aide Jon Carlisle said the last known recordings were from July 10, hours before 12 tons of ceiling panels fell from a Big Dig tunnel, crushing a car and killing 39-year-old Milena Del Valle of Boston.

Carlisle, also spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation, disputed that such cameras are common in state offices.

“We don’t use them in our executive offices,” he said. “Employees have the right to expect they are not under surveillance.”

He said the digital recordings are being preserved as the Turnpike investigates whether they were made legally.

Other top former Turnpike officials said they were unaware of the cameras.

Former Turnpike Authority board member Jordan Levy, called the cameras, “bizarre.”

“This is not the CIA. I can’t imagine why we have hidden cameras in the Turnpike Authority offices,” Levy said Thursday. “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a long time. Someone’s paranoid.”

In April, the state’s highest court ruled employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public areas at work.

The case involved a worker at Salem State College who used a rear work area to change her clothes and apply an ointment for a severe sunburn to her chest. The worker sued the college after a co-worker discovered a hidden camera that was taping the portion of the office where she unbuttoned her blouse to apply the ointment.

“Despite all of the plaintiff’s efforts discreetly to conduct acts of a very personal and private nature in the office, in this case, there was no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy,” the court ruled. “The office was public.”

But the court chastised the school for letting the tapes run 24 hours a day. The school said the cameras were installed to investigate people entering the office after hours.

The decision to remove the Turnpike cameras came a day after Cogliano fired six Turnpike managers.

Cogliano took over the Turnpike and the trouble-plagued $14.6 billion Big Dig on Wednesday after Gov. Mitt Romney successfully pressured Amorello to resign in the wake of last month’s fatal accident.

AP-ES-08-18-06 1605EDT