CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP CHALLENGES POLICE SPYCAM

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association plans to ask the federal privacy
commissioner to rule police acted improperly when they installed a
security camera in downtown Kelowna.

Police erred in not informing the public as soon as the security
camera was put up in downtown Kelowna's Kerry Park, says association
spokesman Dale Beyerstein.

But he acknowledged the commissioner has no authority to order that
the camera, temporarily removed following an arson attack, not be
reinstalled.

"Basically, the most that could happen is that the commissioner could
rap the knuckles of the RCMP," Beyerstein said.

The association is still preparing its submission to the privacy
commissioner, and may not formally file it for a few weeks. The
association believes the use of surveillance cameras in public places
amounts to an invasion of privacy.

The privacy commissioner deals with complaints involving the
RCMP.

Kelowna RCMP put up the camera in mid-July, but did not issue a press
release about it until three weeks later. Police and city officials
believe the security camera will help discourage crime in Kerry Park,
a notorious drug dealing area.

Police credit it with assisting in the arrest of several people, and
have said videotaped images recorded by the camera could be used as
evidence in court.

"I don't know if our planned appeal to the privacy commissioner would
make any difference to the handling of criminal offences that could
involve the use of the videotape, but a sharp lawyer up there might
want to make note of it," Beyerstein said from Vancouver.

The camera was taken down last week after somebody torched the wood
pole to which it was attached. The camera was not damaged, but some
wires were burned and transmission of images back to the RCMP station
was disrupted.

Kelowna city council has not yet decided if it will buy the camera and
monitor, now on loan from the manufacturer, but Mayor Walter Gray has
said he'd like to see surveillance systems throughout downtown.

"Security cameras are now a way of life," Gray said during a council
meeting earlier this month. "We don't apologize for the fact that
we're putting security cameras out there.

"If we can get four or five or six more of them, we will. So
there."