THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s police force and municipal government want to put more virtual eyes on the city’s streets.
The two groups are looking to expand the city’s aging Eye on the Street video surveillance program with hundreds of thousands of dollars of new equipment.
With the program’s effectiveness seemingly in decline, city councillors discussed its future earlier this month. One councillor suggested it might be better to scrap it entirely, while others argued the privacy safeguards required by the city might make it more effective to simply put surveillance in the hands of police or businesses.
The program, overseen by the city and operated by Apex Security, uses a system of 13 closed-circuit cameras to monitor public areas in the two downtown cores.
When camera operators with Apex observe criminal activity or a situation that could result in harm, they’re able to flag it for early intervention by emergency services. Police officers are also able to access footage from the cameras in the course of their investigations, subject to numerous restrictions intended to protect privacy and prevent the system from being accessed unnecessarily.
More rarely, individuals can apply to access footage of themselves under Ontario's Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA).
The city is required to advertise the locations of the cameras online and with signs indicating when residents enter their view. Numerous other restrictions are spelled out in the program's code of practice.
The number of incidents caught by Eye on the Street cameras declined from 326 in 2015 to just 93 last year. Nearly all of those were caught by 3 of the program's 13 cameras, located at Donald and Syndicate, Brodie and Victoria, and the Water Street terminal.
The declining numbers led Current River councillor Andrew Foulds to question the program’s nearly $200,000 annual price tag.
“I have to be frank, I’m barely a supporter of Eye on the Street,” he said. “We’re spending almost $200,000 [a year] on 60 incidents. I’m not sure there’s a high rate of return on this program in general. Imagine what we could do in terms of social investment – it’s not big dollars, but it’s some dollars.”
Chris Adams, director of communications and technology for the Thunder Bay Police Service, said the program remains a valuable tool, chalking declining numbers up to aging equipment. The system was first installed in 2005, and has seen few updates since.
“Its night vision isn’t up to what a modern camera would be, and the coverage and recording capability haven’t kept pace,” Adams said. “You’re dealing with technology that’s basically 15 years old, in an industry where there [has] been tremendous progress.”
“With the modern advances in technology, there’s a tremendous amount more we could be doing with it, and we would certainly be utilizing it a great deal more.”
Charles Campbell, a city manager who oversees the program, agrees. He believes the program is in need of an update, but is still effective in contributing to community safety.
He pointed out that while incidents caught by the system have declined, the number of times police have requested video has stayed fairly consistent. The footage has been used in situations including a murder investigation and to investigate complaints about officer behaviour.
It can also be useful in non-criminal matters, he added, when operators spot people in need of help.
“Anecdotally, I’m told we’ve saved a few lives and probably a few fingers with people passed out in the winter,” he said.
City statistics indicate the program led to 9 medical interventions last year, along with 11 arrests and 15 situations police diffused on arrival - numbers that are also much lower than in past years.
The city plans to overhaul the camera system using capital dollars unspent in previous years. The Thunder Bay Police Service, meanwhile, has applied for provincial funding that would match up to $200,000 of the city’s spending.
If successful, Adams said, that would allow them to add more cameras in new locations, as well as re-examining current camera placement. The new equipment would also grant better coverage – the city is examining 180- and 360-degree cameras – and resolution, as well as improved night vision.
Some of the new locations attractive to police could come up against privacy restrictions in the city’s Eye on the Street code of practice, which limits the placement of cameras in residential areas.
Adams said crime patterns have shifted toward those neighbourhoods in the past 15 years.
“As we all know, crime has sometimes spread from traditional downtown locations,” he said. “We know there are other areas of the city that from time to time would definitely benefit from more surveillance.”
That could include using cameras to target the city’s growing guns and gangs problem, he indicated.
“In Thunder Bay, we have a real serious public safety crisis we’re dealing with – our community has been targeted by gangs from southern Ontario… that are extremely dangerous, that have a deep impact on very vulnerable people in our community.”
“We really want to leverage this kind of technology to help us not just in the day-to-day public safety things the system was set up to do, but also leverage it in dealing with the guns and gangs threat.”
At the Sept. 14 council meeting, Coun. Peng You suggested the city investigate transferring operation of the surveillance system to police.
His motion was ultimately defeated 7-6, with city administration saying giving police control over the system could raise privacy issues and uncertainty over whether force itself would welcome the transfer.
Coun. Aldo Ruberto, meanwhile, argued it might be more effective for businesses to invest in their own systems, which can be accessed by police without the restrictions imposed on the Eye on the Street program.
“As time goes by, I think we’re going to see us go to a more private system based on the fact that there’s easy accessibility, you don’t have to follow all these rules, and there’s better coverage in terms of what you can and can’t see,” he said.
