In plain view from her living room window, Leaa Both can see a slim 30-foot tower rising from a small trailer parked on the street in front of her house.
Four surveillance cameras attached to the top of the tower presumably capture any of Both’s movements as she leaves or returns to her house in the 6400-block Sophia Street.
Can the cameras see what’s going inside her house?
It’s a question she doesn’t have an answer to but trusts the people who rolled up with the trailer on Christmas Day have a good reason for its presence.
Those people are the Vancouver Police Department.
“I more or less trust the police to be doing what they’re doing,” she said from her doorstep Monday. “It’s not really having an effect on my life.”
But what’s curious about the presence of the contraption is that Both can’t recall any one incident that would have triggered such a need for surveillance cameras. Neither can four of her neighbours interviewed by the Courier, although one woman, who didn’t want her name published, said she heard something about police recently making arrests in the neighbourhood.
“I phoned the police to ask about it, but I was on hold for 10 minutes, so I hung up,” said the woman, who has questions about invasion of privacy and the storage of the footage captured by the cameras. “If it’s for the safety of the neighbourhood, then I’m OK with it — maybe not 100 per cent because I do have some concerns.”
Sgt. Randy Fincham, a VPD media liaison officer, wouldn’t provide details of why the tower camera remains in the neighbourhood but confirmed it was parked there Christmas Day.
“I can’t say specifically what [type of crime] it was but it was definitely put there as a crime deterrent in that neighbourhood,” said Fincham, noting the $58,000 tower camera has operated for about six months at various locations around the city. “We recognize that certain people in a neighbourhood may not want that camera there, but the primary goal is crime prevention or to act as a deterrent. So we weigh those privacy concerns with the potential that there could be harm caused in that neighbourhood.”
The VPD’s new crime mapping tool system, Geodash, doesn’t indicate any recent crimes along the strip of Sophia Street, although the categories captured in the system don’t include all crimes.
Micheal Vonn, policy director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said she has concerns about the deployment of the tower camera — particularly whether they have the capability to see into people’s homes — but cautioned that the association hasn’t concluded such equipment is unnecessary.
“What we don’t want to start out by saying is that this kind of camera could never be justified — that’s not our position,” Vonn said. “But given the sensitivity of the information regarding the deployments, how can we know when it’s being appropriately deployed?”
Vonn suggested the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. consider an audit to determine whether the tower camera, which is also used by Abbotsford police and some other local police forces, is being used in a manner that doesn’t infringe on residents’ privacy rights.
“Because we can’t rely on individual complaints,” she added.
Jane Zatylny, a communications officer with the privacy commissioner’s office, said discussions are ongoing with the VPD about the use of the tower camera but she couldn’t share more information.
A document posted under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act on the VPD’s website in December indicates the gang unit requested the department buy the trailer camera.
The document says possible uses could include combatting gang activity and counter-terrorism and deploying it in areas experiencing high property crime. It could also be used when threats have been made against the public or cops, at emergency response team calls and for monitoring parades, demonstrations and public events.
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
