City councillors in Cambridge got a closer look last week at the Waterloo regional police (WRPS) plans for their new closed-circuit television (CCTV) and automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras.
During the council meeting, WRPS Deputy Chief Jen Davis gave an update explaining how these cameras will work and why certain spots were chosen. A few councillors brought up concerns about privacy.
Davis explained that the cameras won’t be watched live all the time, and anyone wanting to view the footage will have to provide legal justification.
“We would need an occurrence number or event, something to give up justification to go into the stored footage to search for evidence or to investigate a criminal offence that may have happened.”
She also mentioned that any footage not needed for investigations will be erased after 30 days.
Though there won’t be officers watching feeds constantly, if needed, police can monitor them live. Davis pointed out unsanctioned university district parties as one example where live viewing might come into play.
Councillors asked if facial recognition technology would be used with these cameras.
Davis said while the cameras do have facial recognition capabilities built in, they won’t turn that feature on. Instead, they’ll use a different kind of tool.
“Facial comparison actually picks neutral things. It would be nice if they took the word ‘facial’ out of it. What it does is search for neutral things, so it’s searching by, for example, a person wearing a red sweatshirt and black backpack, it’s (the software) is searching for ‘red sweatshirt’ and ‘black backpack.’”
Some of the cameras can pan, tilt or zoom (PTZ). Others are bullet style or multi-sensor types. PTZ ones will mostly go in busier pedestrian areas.
The WRPS picked camera sites based on data. They looked at three years worth of crime reports, citizen calls for service, areas with more crime and disorder incidents as well as community concerns and locations with frequent firearm incidents, break-ins and robberies.
The availability of power supply and mounting spots was another factor when deciding where to install cameras.
The first phase involves putting up 52 cameras across 10 spots in the region over the next year.
Davis said they’ll share exact camera locations once everything’s been properly checked out on-site.
