GROW-OP DETECTION SERVICE RAISES PRIVACY ISSUES: BC CIVIL LIBERTIES
OFFICIAL

A new service being offered to landlords in the Lower Mainland using
heat-seeking technology to detect illegal marijuana grow operations
raises privacy issues, a BC Civil Liberties Association official said
Monday.

Micheal Vonn, policy director at the BCCLA, said there are some
immediate legal questions, but also some "cultural ramifications" to
the service announced last week by Griffin Investigations & Securities
Ltd.

Landlords have a "legitimate interest" to protect their rental
properties from illegal grow-ops, Vonn said, "the question is where is
the balance ... between tenants' privacy and landlords'
protection?"

Brian Goldstone, Griffin CEO, said privacy was a major concern of the
company, but legal advisors determined the heat-seeking FLIR (Forward
Looking Infra Red) camera was not powerful enough to constitute an
invasion of privacy.

The $14,000 suitcase-sized mobile unit cannot detect the heat of human
bodies behind walls, but can measure the "heat signature" of an
illegal marijuana grow-op inside a rental property.

"We're not out there trying to see people in their homes or what
they're up to," Goldstone said.

He said the inspections would normally take place from the roadside,
at night, without entering the property or interfering with tenants.

Once a grow-op is indicated, the property owner can give the tenant
two-weeks notice of a physical inspection. A marijuana grower would
then likely quickly dismantle the equipment.

"They're not going to want their grow-op found," Goldstone
said.

Property owners who buy into the service will also be able to advise
prospective tenants that FLIR inspections will take place on a monthly
basis.

"The whole idea is to prevent (grow-ops)," Goldstone said. "I hope we
never find one."

The $75 fee for the monthly FLIR inspection is a small price to pay
for the thousands of dollars in remedial work that landlords face when
a rental property is used for an illegal marijuana grow operation.

Goldstone, a retired police officer, said his company came up with the
idea after doing the research and deciding it could be a money-maker
for the company and at the same time help protect landlords from
illegal marijuana grows.

"Landlords have no insurance to cover (the cleanup costs)," he said,
which recently led to an $18,000 bill for one landlord in Mission.

Vonn said there appears to be two things that puts the service in the
"grey zone" privacy-wise.

First, the contract for service may be outside the BC Residential
Tenancy Act, and, secondly, the act provides for the tenants'
"exclusive possession of a rental unit, including reasonable privacy,
and quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the rental unit."

"The question then becomes is monthly FLIR inspection reasonable?"
Vonn asked.

Vonn also pointed out there is a statutory tort of privacy in B.C.
that, according to a Canadian legal website, is "actionable without
proof of damage ... to violate the privacy of another."

So, the service is at least open to challenge in B.C.
courts.

Vonn said that "ever-increasing technological in-roads into our
private lives" does not come as a surprise, given the profits to be
made.

But every time a "new invasive technology" arises, she said, the
balance between privacy and other interests must be defined once again.

"What we don't want to see is privacy compromised because technology
allows us to do it," she said.