COURT RULES INFRARED USE BY COPS LEGAL

OTTAWA -- It's legal for police to scan homes using heat-detecting
equipment, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. In a unanimous
decision yesterday, the high court said infrared cameras can be used
by authorities without violating constitutional right to privacy.

The ruling overturns an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that
described RCMP infrared aerial surveillance as a technological
invasion of privacy.

Justice Ian Binnie wrote that individual privacy isn't violated by
police using heat-sensitive equipment to survey houses for signs of
hidden marijuana-growing operations.

"Patterns of heat distribution on the external surfaces of a house are
not a type of information which give rise to a reasonable expectation
of privacy," he said.

"Safety, security and the suppression of crime are legitimate
countervailing concerns."

The decision restores the conviction and 18-month sentence for Walter
Tessling of Windsor. Police detected his hydroponic marijuana
operation in 1999 using airborne infrared equipment.