Big Brother Arrives in Vancouver

Vancouver city officials are hoping to tap into $2.5 million in government funding to beef up surveillance during the 2010 Winter Olympics with street cameras.

City council will consider a report next week that recommends accepting the funds from the province and the RCMP-led Olympic security unit.

If approved by council, the money will be used to purchase and install more closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and bring existing cameras onto the same grid in a refurbished command centre.

In addition to the command centre, the provincial grant of $435,161 will provide about 10 new portable cameras for Vancouver, said Kevin Wallinger, the director of emergency management for the city.

He wasn't sure how many cameras would be bought with the $2.16 million being allocated by the RCMP out of its $900-million Olympic security budget.

Back in 2006, when city police began looking at expanding CCTV in Vancouver, the cost of one single camera was about $20,000 to install and maintain.

Civil rights groups have expressed concern over the use of the cameras during the Games, saying they'll remain post-Games and allow for far more intrusive policing.

There's also debate about whether the cameras actually help prevent or catch criminals; a massive 2005 study in the U.K., where there's more than four million closed-circuit cameras, found mixed results.

Privacy advocates point to that exact scenario happening in Athens after the 2004 Summer Games, where the 300 cameras installed were kept in widespread use until a court ruled they could only be used for traffic.

"Our hope is that Vancouver-area residents will not wind up surrounded by surveillance systems they neither want nor need. This would be an unfortunate legacy of the 2010 Games,'' B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said last month at a conference on privacy and security during the Olympics.

Wallinger said there is absolutely no intention to leave all of the cameras up.

"Any of the camera deployments for 2010, it is fully intended that those are temporary installations for 2010,'' he said in an interview.

"There is no intent to leave permanent cameras up that are installed for 2010.''

Wallinger said he has already contacted civil liberties groups about the request for funding going before council and they'll be at the table as the city and police decide how best to use the cameras during the Games.

They will also comply with a set of guidelines on CCTV use developed by the privacy commissioner in 2001.

While he pledged that any cameras put up for the Olympics would be temporary, Wallinger said a decision has yet to be made about what exactly would then happen to the cameras themselves afterwards.

"We're still just looking at getting the funding right now,'' he said.

"Potentially the cameras are leased or purchased or redeployed elsewhere or sold-off.''

He said the temporary surveillance cameras the city mounts for the annual Celebration of Lights fireworks festival are put into storage.

The city is hoping the new cameras will be in place in time for the festival this summer as a test-run.

Areas in the city that will see more cameras during the Games include the cruise ship terminals, city parks being used as entertainment sites and the downtown bar and club district.

Vancouver police have been looking at installing more surveillance cameras in that neighbourhood for the last few years to combat rising violence.

The provincial funding Vancouver will receive for the cameras was part of the $1 million announced last fall for a pilot program to use closed-circuit TV cameras in high-crime areas of Vancouver, suburban Surrey and Kelowna.