Andrew Ratchford, ArtSci ’06 and resident of Aberdeen Street this summer, said setting up cameras on the street would set a dangerous precedent.
“If you’re going to put cameras up for a street party, it won’t stop there,” he said. “It’s an invasion of privacy.”
The camera recommendation was one of 17 the Committee for the Safe and Legal Use of Public and Private Space submitted to city council on July 18. All recommendations were passed by council.
Howard Lee, one of Aberdeen’s few non-student residents, said he thinks the cameras would be an effective deterrent in preventing unlawful behaviour.
“It would make sense that when people realize that they’re being taped and illuminated, that they’re less likely to do anything silly,” he said. “There’s only one way to find out, I guess.”
Lee said he doesn’t see the cameras as being a violation of privacy.
“If they’re pointed inside a residence, that might be a little different,” he said. “Out on the street there, that’s a public domain, so privacy doesn’t enter into it at all.” Police chief Bill Closs said the police force has been conducting camera surveillance for the past two years, using hand-held video cameras.
“For the last two years we’ve been using video,” he said. “We just haven’t publicized it, [we] haven’t talked about it too much.”
The difference with the committee’s recommendation is that cameras will be mounted—most likely on utility poles—and set up prior to any illegal activity taking place.
Closs said officers will be carrying video cameras again this year.
“The idea is, we’re hoping we’re going to be videotaping a fun, lawful time,” he said. “The purpose of the videotape also is if there’s a need to identify suspects of criminal acts.”
The committee members paid close attention to Ontario Information and Privacy Commission guidelines when they made their recommendations, said Ryan Quinlan-Keech, AMS municipal affairs commissioner and committee vice-chair.
“Law enforcement isn’t required to follow the guidelines, but as I understand it, 99 per cent of the time they do,” he said. “The Kingston police have indicated that they will follow the guidelines.”
Quinlan-Keech said if the guidelines are followed, they would limit the extent of the surveillance and protect student privacy. This would, for instance, limit the cameras to being pointed onto the street.
“There won’t be cameras directed onto Earl Street or behind houses, or anything like that,” he said.
Quinlan-Keech said the cameras would only be up for one night of the weekend.
“As I understand it, they would be up from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning,” he said. “The police want surveillance for the Saturday night festivities, but beyond that, it costs a lot of money to keep the cameras up.”
He said the cameras would prevent anonymous partiers from getting out of control.
“Surveillance was brought up in the context of safety, not to pick out students and throw the book at them for being at a party,” he said. “They’re a deterrent for people with greater anonymity, people who arrive in Kingston by the busload from other cities, expecting to party and do whatever they want.”
Paul Fay, a lawyer and member of the committee, said city residents are free to voice concerns about the surveillance at council meetings.
“This is a public issue,” he said.
Fay said the recommendation doesn’t outline the finer points of the cameras’ use.
“How it will be implemented and used hasn’t been approached,” he said. “But the primary purpose is geared towards the safety issues on Aberdeen.”
Fay said the proposed surveillance is justified given the Aberdeen street party’s reputation, and the fact that Homecoming weekend would be captured on camera even if police surveillance weren’t being used.
“I don’t, philosophically, have problems with monitoring things. This is a hot spot area, and there are legitimate concerns,” he said. “The media last year did document the situation on Aberdeen, and that footage was public. So it was subject to surveillance anyways.”
Fay added that he hopes students will react positively to the new suggestions.
“I think a lot of the student reaction will depend on who places the cameras and the intended purpose,” he said.
Debra Grant, an Ontario Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) manager, said the IPC has created a set of guidelines to help cities and organizations regulate camera monitoring. They also give recommendations regarding the protection of privacy.
Page seven of the guidelines states, “Any information obtained by way of video surveillance systems may only be used for the purposes of the stated rationale and objectives.” Grant said if Kingston police follow IPC guidelines, the use of camera footage in court proceedings would be limited to incidents related to Homecoming safety.
Grant said that police aren’t legally required to follow the commission’s recommendations regarding the protection of privacy, and no specific laws exist to regulate video surveillance.
However, all collections of personal information, including surveillance, are subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
“The [Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act] does not require a police services board to proactively demonstrate compliance with the guidelines to the IPC,” she said. “[But] an image of an identifiable individual appearing on a video qualifies as personal information, and if collected by the Kingston police, is subject to [the act].”
Robert Woolsey, freedom of information coordinator with Kingston Police, said the police will comply with legislative requirements.
“Police Agencies are given wider discretion in the use of camera surveillance than other agencies,” he said.
The IPC guidelines for the use of surveillance “do not apply to surveillance when used as a case-specific investigation tool for law enforcement purposes where there is statutory authority and/or the authority of a search warrant to conduct the surveillance.”
Grant said the IPC has successfully worked with several cities to implement video surveillance.
“The IPC has reviewed street video surveillance programs by police located in Sudbury, London, Sturgeon Falls, Thessalon, Peterborough, Hamilton, Windsor and Toronto,” she said.
Arthur Cockfield, associate dean of the Queen’s Faculty of Law, said surveillance on Aberdeen is legal and has been done elsewhere in Canada.
“No legislation would prohibit what the city plans to do,” he said.
Cockfield said provincial guidelines on video surveillance place few limits on what the police can do with collected footage.
“The Information and Privacy Commission guidelines are a good idea, but they aren’t binding law,” he said. “In theory, somebody could complain about misuse of the surveillance or not following the guidelines, but there is very little authority to do anything … [The commission] could launch an investigation and maybe there would be fines against an organization.”
Cockfield said police could use footage to track down and prosecute partiers causing problems.
“They’d find your face on the video, put it in the paper, and launch an investigation, much like they did with the men who urinated on the war memorial over Canada Day,” he said.
Although Cockfield said he’s glad the surveillance cameras won’t be a permanent addition to Aberdeen Street, he said he doesn’t feel comfortable with the initiative.
“Why can’t the police just enforce existing laws?” he asked. “People can’t burn and turn over cars, why can’t the police deal with that instead of videotaping hundreds of law-abiding citizens?”
Cockfield said surveillance on Aberdeen is only one part of a larger trend towards increased intrusion into public space.
“Camera monitoring is pervasive in England and the U.S. since 9/11, but less so in Canada,” he said. “There is, however, a modest trend in this direction in Canada.”
Cockfield added that students can likely expect more surveillance in all areas of their lives.
“There is a new intrusion of camera monitoring,” he said. “We are becoming a society of surveillance.”
—With files from Anna Mehler Paperny
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