FC: Canada's privacy czar: Cops must "cease" video surveillance

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"Canada's privacy commish: Video surveillance a 'threat' to privacy"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02616.html

---

Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 22:25:50 -0500
From: Robert Guerra <rguerra () yahoo com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: video surveillance in Canada (fwd)

Declan:

FYI


---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:42 PM +0000
From: John Spence <spence_johng () hotmail com>
Subject: Radwanski to MacAuley re: video surveillance

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, George Radwanski, today sent the
following letter to the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Solicitor General of
Canada, regarding video surveillance by the RCMP

   OTTAWA, March 15 /CNW/ - The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, George
Radwanski, today sent the following letter to the Honourable Lawrence
MacAulay, Solicitor General of Canada, regarding video surveillance by the
RCMP.

   Dear Minister MacAulay:

   I am writing to formally request your assistance in the following
matter:

   On October 4, 2001, I issued the finding of my investigation regarding a
Privacy Act complaint about the RCMP's use of a video surveillance camera
on a public street in Kelowna, B.C.
   In the finding, I made clear that while the RCMP had brought itself into
technical compliance with the letter of the Privacy Act during the course of
my investigation by ceasing its continuous recording through the camera, it
was still violating the spirit and intent of the Act by maintaining
24-hour-a- day surveillance through the camera without recording.
   As I stated in my finding, "the very presence of video cameras, whether
they are recording at any given moment or not, is what creates the privacy-
destroying sense of being observed...The level and quality of privacy in our
country risks being struck a crippling, irrevocable blow if we allow
ourselves to become subjected to constant, unrelenting surveillance and
observation through the lens of proliferating video cameras controlled by
the police or any other agents of the state."
   I therefore recommended that to be appropriately respectful of the
privacy rights of Canadians, the RCMP should immediately cease this video
surveillance and dismantle the camera. A copy of my letter of finding is
enclosed herewith for your convenience.
   The RCMP has flatly refused to heed my recommendation.
   This is highly unusual and deeply disturbing. There is well-established
precedent that when the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the Officer of
Parliament mandated to oversee privacy rights, recommends a course of action
to come into compliance with the spirit - not just the letter - of privacy
law, federal institutions comply. As just two recent examples, I would cite
the dismantling of the HRDC Longitudinal Labour Force file and the modified
approach to the opening by CCRA customs agents of letter mail on behalf of
Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
   The RCMP's behavior in this instance is particularly unacceptable for
three additional reasons.
   First, there is no evidence that this dramatic new intrusion on privacy
is necessary. Crime rates in Kelowna, as in all of Canada, have been
steadily declining - not increasing - for the past five years. Nor has any
evidence been adduced of an exceptionally serious and urgent crime
situation in Kelowna that this camera was needed to address.
   Second, there is absolutely no evidence that video surveillance cameras
on public streets are effective in reducing or deterring crime. I asked the
Commissioner of the RCMP for statistical evidence as to the effectiveness of
the Kelowna camera after it had been in place for eight months. He was
unable to produce any data whatsoever, even though this was supposed to be
a pilot project. London, England, has more street surveillance cameras than
any other city in the Western world, last year it had more such cameras
than any preceding year - and last year in London, street crime went up 40
per cent.     And, finally, the RCMP - of all federal institutions - should
as the national police force be exemplary in showing the maximum respect
possible for the fundamental human right of privacy.
   As the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association stated in its
February 22 letter to you on this subject: "After all, the motto of the RCMP
is 'Maintain the Right,' not 'Skirt around the Right'...If Canadians are
going to be asked to sacrifice their freedom for greater security and
safety (in the aftermath of September 11), then the least we must expect
from the police is that they will respect our privacy to the greatest
extent possible. The use of video surveillance in public places defies this
reasonable expectation."     Based on all these considerations, I am hereby
formally requesting that you exercise your responsibilities as
Solicitor-General and instruct the Commissioner of the RCMP to comply with
my finding and recommendation by immediately dismantling the existing
camera in Kelowna and refraining from any further such initiatives.
   This request is of the greatest urgency because the current plan calls
for the RCMP to install another five video surveillance cameras on the
streets of Kelowna in the course of this month. Since I first brought this
matter to your personal attention in an informal meeting on January 25, I
am hopeful that there need be no further delay required for you to look
into it.     I note that you expressed some preliminary thoughts on this
issue in a CBC radio interview on March 2. Since the approach you took
would not, in my view, satisfactorily dispose of the matter, I would like
at this time to address the substance of the points you made in that
interview.
   First, you stated: "In fact, the person that would take the camera down
would be the Attorney General of British Columbia. The RCMP are operating
under provincial jurisdiction in the ...a contract position. I'm not trying
to escape the issue, but in fact that's who would, if there was a decision
like that to make."
   This is not correct.
   Article 3.1(a) of the Municipal Policing Agreement between the Province
of British Columbia and the Government of Canada, dated April 1, 1992,
states:

   "The internal management of each of the Municipal Police Services,
   including its administration and the determination and application of
   professional police procedures, shall remain under the control of
   Canada."

   The RCMP's own document, Provincial Police Services Agreement:
Interpretation and Administrative Procedures, 1995, states at page 19:

   "The scope of ministerial (Solicitor General of Canada) direction of the
   internal management of the RCMP is qualified only by the independence
   from interference that is due to the police in the legal exercise of
   their peace officer powers, on a case-by-case basis. With this
exception,     and the accountability to the law that this exception
entails, the RCMP     is, in all matters relating to management,
accountable to the Solicitor     General who, in turn, is accountable to
Parliament. The fact that the     RCMP Act places certain authority in the
hands of the Commissioner does     not allow the Solicitor General to evade
his responsibility for the     direction of the Force. Should matters of
concern to the Solicitor     General arise with respect to administrative
standards or procedures in     general, it is within his power to issue
directives...The Solicitor     General of Canada is responsible to
Parliament for ensuring that the RCMP     operates in conformity with the
law."

   Indeed, the RCMP itself clearly accepts federal jurisdiction in this
matter. That is why the British Columbia Information and Privacy
Commissioner, David Loukidelis, had to make a complaint to me under the
Privacy Act rather than deal with the issue himself. And it is why the RCMP
resorted to the tactic of no longer recording continuously, to come into
minimal technical compliance with the federal Act. If this video
surveillance activity by the RCMP's own admission falls under the federal
jurisdiction of the Privacy Act, then it also indisputably falls under your
federal jurisdiction as Solicitor General, and the Attorney General of
British Columbia has no role in this matter.
   I therefore respectfully submit that it you have the exclusive
jurisdiction, and the responsibility, to direct the RCMP to comply with my
recommendation.
   Second, you stated in the CBC radio interview that "about 80 per cent,
or 80-plus per cent of the people in this area want the camera there."
In fact, this is not factually correct. The only source for this "80 per
cent" figure, to which the RCMP makes frequent reference, is a single, very
general question buried in a mail-in "Citizens Survey" conducted by the City
of Kelowna. Only 997 of 2,500 questionnaires were returned, and the relevant
question asked whether people agreed with the following statement:
"Community safety cameras (approved by City Council and controlled by the
RCMP) are an effective crime prevention tool."
   When I briefly visited Kelowna in February, I encountered a significant
number of people who are quite concerned about the RCMP's use of the street
surveillance camera. In any event, I am sure you would agree that a
fundamental human right such as privacy cannot be abrogated in a community
by majority opinion. And, of course, nothing in the Privacy Act suggests
that recommendations of the Privacy Commissioner should be subject to
approval by plebiscite or opinion polling before a federal institution must
heed them.     Finally, you stated in the CBC interview that "it's been a
difficult time since September 11 to juggle the rights and to make sure
that we have the proper measures in place."
   As you know, I have said repeatedly since September 11 that privacy is
not an absolute right and that it must be carefully balanced, on a case-by-
case basis, against other vital societal needs such as security. But not
even the RCMP or the mayor of Kelowna have tried to suggest that the
Kelowna street camera is an anti-terrorist measure or in any way related to
September 11, because to do so would be patently silly.
   The camera long pre-dates September 11. There is no indication that the
streets of Kelowna are frequented by, or any interesting target for,
international terrorists. And if New York City had had so many street
surveillance cameras as to turn the whole city into a virtual TV studio,
this would have done nothing to prevent the terrorists from hijacking
airplanes and crashing them into the World Trade Centre.
   I consider this to be a matter of the greatest importance and urgency.
   If the RCMP is able to continue using street video surveillance in
Kelowna even though it is unnecessary, in no way demonstrably effective
against crime, and a grave threat to privacy rights, this will set the worst
possible example for police forces across the country.
   As well, it is unacceptable, in terms of the effectiveness of Canada's
privacy protection regime, that an important national institution such as
the RCMP be able to cavalierly ignore the strongest possible recommendation
from the Officer of Parliament mandated to oversee the privacy rights of
Canadians.     I therefore respectfully request that you immediately direct
the Commissioner of the RCMP to discontinue the video surveillance of public
streets in Kelowna, in conformity with my finding and recommendation.

   Yours sincerely,

   George Radwanski
   Privacy Commissioner of Canada




-30-

For further information: Anne-Marie Hayden, Media Relations, Office of
the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Tel: (613) 995-0103,
ahayden () privcom gc ca, www.privcom.gc.ca

http://www.newswire.ca/releases/March2002/15/c1096.html


---------- End Forwarded Message ----------



--
Robert Guerra <rguerra () cpsr org>
Director , Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) is an
organization that addresses the benefits and risks to society resulting
from the use of computers.  For information, please visit
<http://www.cpsr.org>




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