City votes to get funding for CCTV during Olympics

By IRWIN LOY, 24 HOURS, Thursday, March 26, 2009

There will likely be CCTV cameras on city streets during the Olympics, after Vancouver city hall opted Thursday to officially request funding for the controversial cameras from senior governments.

It's being called a temporary measure, although civil-liberties critics warn the move is a first step towards a permanent closed-circuit television camera system in public areas of Vancouver.

Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal, whose left-of-centre party dominates council, said the city has no intention of keeping the cameras active after the Games, although she acknowledged vocal departments like the Vancouver Police will likely lobby to do so.

“We've been extremely clear as a council here that temporary is a keyword,” Deal said.

But Ellen Woodsworth, a councillor with the left-wing COPE party, says the city shouldn't need a CCTV system to have a safe Olympics. She also worries of civil-liberty concerns.

“We can't guarantee privacy,” she said. “We can't guarantee they won't be used in residential areas.”

Almost $2.6 million has been made available to the city for CCTV by the province and the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit, the RCMP unit responsible for security during the Games.

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‘No legal requirement’ for 2010 street cameras: city official
By Geoff Dembicki March 26, 2009, The Hook/Tyee

Vancouver will use $2.6 million in government funding to improve surveillance during the 2010 Olympics, despite being under no legal obligation to operate street cameras.

“There’s no legal requirement per se,” the city’s director of emergency management Kevin Wallinger told council. “But there’s certainly an identified risk.”

City officials today approved a staff report to tap into $435,161 in provincial funding and $2.16 million from the 2010 Vancouver Integrated Security Unit to purchase and monitor temporary closed circuit cameras.

Come Games-time, CCTV will be used around the cruise ship terminal, downtown entertainment districts and city-run “live sites.” City officials will run a control room at Vancouver’s Emergency Operations Centre.

Wallinger couldn’t give specific dates or locations of the deployment, but said cameras will first be tested during the Celebration of Lights fireworks festival this summer.

Asked by Vision councillor Andrea Reimer whether CCTV was a legal requirement in Vancouver’s Olympics bid, Wallinger replied the city is only obliged to provide a “safe and secure” Games.

The emergency management director said temporary cameras will let officials monitor crowd movements and traffic flows to ensure the safest Olympics possible.

“It’s not about law enforcement, it’s not about security,” Wallinger said in an interview. “It’s about the broader public safety aspects.”

COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth voted against the camera initiative, arguing the technology might infringe on the civil liberties of protest groups. She said the 15,000 police, private security and military personnel expected during the Olympics will be enough to protect the public.

“I’m not convinced that CCTV is necessary, given the overwhelming security forces for the Games,” she said.

Olympics Resistance Network member Alissa Westergard-Thorpe worried the report approved by council doesn’t guarantee temporary monitoring won’t turn into permanent surveillance. She pointed to host cities such as Athens, which retained its cameras after the 2004 Summer Olympics.

“There are no legally binding elements or funding proposals for the removal of CCTV after the Games,” she said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook (A Tyee blog).