Civil liberties advocate alarmed by Surrey councillor's call for more police access to traffic cams

A civil liberties advocate is raising concerns after a Surrey city councillor and mayoral candidate said she wants the city’s police to have increased access to the city's traffic cameras. 

A statement issued by Surrey First on Monday said coun. Linda Annis, the party’s candidate for mayor in this fall’s municipal election, wants to provide the Surrey Police Service (SPS) “more and easier access” to traffic cameras to help fight crime, particularly for ongoing extortion cases.But Tamir Israel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, surveillance and technology program says it’s important to consider “how intrusive it is to grant police direct and centralized access to an extensive network of cameras like this.”  

“Currently, police do have access to the camera footage … but they need to justify their access to the city on a case-by-case basis,” Israel told CBC’s The Early Edition.

“And granting access directly bypasses this important check and balance and raises a heightened risk of potential abuse.” 

But in the statement, Annis argued that the current process is inefficient.“By the time the whole approval process is completed, the criminals are long gone and any real value is limited,” she said. 

“At the same time, those traffic cameras are not monitored 24/7, something we need to change if we want to put that technology to work so that it can help us fight crime.” In a statement, the City of Surrey’s public safety department said the SPS has had direct, immediate access to footage from the city’s traffic cameras for several months.

It went on to say that last summer it “increased staffing to provide a 24/7, immediate response to police requests for footage from its more than 600 traffic cameras.”“The City has ensured the appropriate legal and privacy controls are in place to support this access as Surrey Police Service operates as an independent organization,” the statement reads. 

SPS Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said the police service supports Annis’s proposal “in principle,” and confirmed that a process is already in place for police to access city-managed traffic cameras.

"However, at present that process requires several different steps and different people involved from multiple departments and agencies, including the city, for us to allow access," he said.

Houghton said "access as of right now is not immediate," and the SPS will likely submit a proposal to the city to explore ways to make access more efficient.

He said they also hope the city monitors traffic cameras on weekday evenings and weekends and holidays, which "currently does not happen."

"We know that violent crime often doesn't happen just during business hours Monday to Friday," Houghton said.

Annis said in the statement that it makes sense to monitor the city’s hundreds of traffic cameras around the clock and to have a police officer part of the monitoring team. 

“Those cameras can do a lot more than just monitor traffic jams, and we need that sort of help right away,” she said, adding that she wants to ask the province to help fund more public safety cameras.But Israel argued Surrey built the camera network for the purpose of monitoring traffic.