A Richmond resident recently asked city council to reconsider installing high-definition cameras, claiming it wouldn’t help enhance public safety.
Kody Millar opposes the city’s plan to install high-definition cameras at 10 intersections, which are intended to help police catch suspects in crimes. He also took issue with the proposed cameras’ auto pan zoom technology.
“Having cameras following people is treating everyone like a suspect,” Millar said.
The proposed cameras would capture faces, licence plates and pedestrians.
Millar noted the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner previously didn’t allow the city to install high-definition cameras.
He cited a letter from the commissioner to the City of Richmond from 2018 that reads: “A public body is not authorized to collect personal information about citizens, in the absence of an investigation, on the chance it may be useful in a future investigation.”
The city staff report on the 10 intersection cameras, however, noted the privacy office has "softened" its stance since Richmond installed low-definition cameras at 110 intersections in 2020.
In 2021, the privacy commissioner, Michael McEvoy, when asked about high-definition cameras, said the City of Richmond would have to show that "capturing the images of tens of thousands of citizens who are going about their lawful daily business, using a 24/7 surveillance system, is proportional to the law enforcement-related harms the City is attempting to address."
Millar claimed there have been numerous studies in the United Kingdom, where there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras, that show crime hasn’t gone down as a result.
“This is understandable because cameras record crime, but they do not prevent it,” he said. Rather, they will store a large amount of information about “law-abiding citizens.”
Furthermore, Millar said it was because of "good law enforcement," not CCTV cameras, that 100 people were arrested after the 2011 Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver.
Coun. Kash Heed, who is a former VPD inspector, said, in fact, many of the Stanley Cup riot arrests were based on video footage from media coverage and other sources.
He also noted that having cameras isn't necessarily for capturing an actual incident, such as a murder in a home, but to help police catch suspects as they are fleeing the scene.
Furthermore, he said, cameras are already in public places, such as the Brighouse Canada Line Station, where there are eight cameras, and at city hall.
“The point I want to make is the surveillance is out there all over,” Heed said, adding these cameras have a “sophisticated system” of identification.
In his presentation to city council, Millar said the Chinese Communist Party would applaud the staff report about the cameras because “they’ve used the same kinds of justifications for their mass surveillance system.”
The 10 intersection cameras are expected to cost $2.5 million. The city was looking at getting a court declaration in advance of spending the money to install the cameras.
Millar has started a petition against the CCTV cameras.
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