Despite concerns over gang violence, the Delta Police Department won’t be using surveillance cameras to keep an eye on potential gang activity during the ongoing conflict.
That’s according to Police Chief Neil Dubord when the question of public safety cameras was posed during a May 18 virtual town hall meeting with Mayor George Harvie and Deputy Police Chief Harj Sidhu.
They addressed public safety concerns following the shooting death of a 29-year-old man in early May outside the busy Scottsdale Centre shopping mall, as well as how DPD have taken the lead in the investigation with 40 investigators working the file.
Police have automated licence plate readers to spot vehicles known to be involved in gang activity. However, when it comes to public safety cameras, Dubord said they have to be considered a last resort.
“They are seen to be an invasion of privacy, so the police have to be able to take all necessary precautions and it has to be sort of a last resort for us to be able to use large public safety cameras,” he said. “Traffic safety cameras are very effective at this point in time to be able to assist us to some degree of observation of the roadways that we’re dealing with, and I know Delta is very supportive of the traffic safety program and the City of Surrey also has a very good traffic safety program, a camera program that we’re able to utilize. As far as other cameras, at this particular time, we don’t have any initiatives coming into the future with that.”
Sidhu noted that when there was an uptick in gang violence in 2016, particularly along the Scott Road corridor, a camera deployed at 80th Avenue and Scott Road was “fairly effective.”
The city’s police department, for now, will rely on various other tools such as automated licence plate readers as well as cell phone video from the public, Sidhu added.
Harvie said the subject came up at a recent meeting with fellow mayors and Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Harvie said the Vancouver International Airport, where another shooting occurred, has many cameras but the province’s privacy commissioner said the footage from those cameras can’t be used for criminal charges.
“That is something we’ve asked the minister to look at because there’s a public safety issue,” said Harvie. “There should be at least some mechanism where during this type of emergency they can be used, so, we still have those kinds of problems that have surfaced and now being re-examined based upon what’s happening in regards to the current gang violence…having all those cameras and having the footage and not being able to act to get charges is not the right thing when we have a public safety issue as we have today.”
Three years ago, Drew McArthur, B.C.’s acting information and privacy commissioner, released a statement critical of several municipal governments for their current or planned uses of surveillance cameras in public places, saying such cameras are ineffective in crime prevention and a breach of the public’s privacy rights. Delta wasn’t among the jurisdictions cited.
“While the benefits of video surveillance are hypothetical, the harm it presents to the privacy of British Columbians is real, and will only be amplified by increasingly sophisticated facial recognition technology and big data analyses identifying and following us from camera to camera,” McArthur wrote. “These days, most of our activities are surveilled, whether we know it or not. With so many of our relationships, thoughts, and emotions being lived and tracked online, physical spaces are among the scarce untraceable places left for us to be and to express ourselves. It is ironic that public spaces are among the few remaining places where we still have privacy. If we surrender our public spaces to surveillance – where we all have the right to be–we may never get them back.”
In response to a recent letter writer to council expressing concern about gang violence, city staff noted that any individual or business who has CCTV cameras that record a public area, such as a street or parking lot, is encouraged to register for the Community Watch program.
It helps police become aware of who might have video cameras in a particular area and can save police time when an investigation is urgent, according to staff.
