Technology that will allow Ottawa police to scan up to 5,000 licence plates per hour has already netted results in the city, while privacy advocates are voicing their concerns over how the data will be collected and safeguarded.

Police on Thursday unveiled the first Ottawa Police Service cruiser to implement the Automatic Licence Plate Recognition technology – a device with three all-weather infrared cameras mounted to the roof, with the ability to scan and record licence plates in multiple lanes of traffic and in multiple directions. The readings are fed into a database, and the officer is alerted to potential offenders within seconds if the plate number matches the police “hot list.”

The technology was first developed by British law enforcement to combat the Irish Republican Army, and has since been implemented by numerous law enforcement agencies in Canada and the U.S., where it has drawn the ire of privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, over how data for non-offending vehicles is collected and stored.

In accordance with the Ontario Privacy Commission’s stringent guidelines, Ottawa police have agreed to track data only for offenders – one of the ACLU’s primary recommendations. That information will be stored for five years, while licence plates of “non-hit” vehicles are immediately purged from the data bank.

“It’s not doing a job that we’re not doing already,” said Sgt. Robert Cairns of the OPS escort and traffic support services, and a longtime advocate of the technology who worked extensively with the device in his previous policing career in the U.K.

“Officers are routinely driving and (manually) inputting number plates on a daily basis, but this is running plates exactly the same way.”

Sgt. Cairns said the first 90-minute field test of the device on Thursday morning netted two infractions for suspended drivers, including one who was driving while uninsured.

Police said it was “very important” that implementation of the technology was done in accordance with strict regulations imposed by the Ontario Privacy Commission. Sgt. Cairns said the force is “totally compliant” with those regulations, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation and with the OPP, which has already installed the technology on about 50 vehicles.

“Their results are outstanding, and that was a reason I felt compelled that we should get this equipment,” said Sgt. Cairns.

The technology will help police to quickly identify stolen licence plates, disqualified or suspended drivers, unlicensed drivers, expired validation and people wanted on a warrant. It could also alert officers to vehicles involved in serious crimes, high-risk offenders and Amber Alerts.

Laura Berger, a lawyer with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, commended Ottawa police for being forthcoming with their intentions, but noted that wasn’t always the case.

In 2013, the force twice denied it was testing the ALPR technology, before admitting to a trial run of one device on an unmarked cruiser. Months earlier, British Columbia’s privacy commissioner had criticized the Victoria Police Department after an investigation found the force had relayed information from both “hit” and “non-hit” vehicles to the RCMP.

“Collecting personal information for traffic enforcement and identifying stolen vehicles does not extend to retaining data on the law-abiding activities of citizens just in case it may be useful in the future,” wrote Commissioner Elizabeth Denham in her 2013 report.

The CCLA shares that concern, and recommends several safeguards, including public reporting on the use of the technology and regular auditing to ensure Ottawa police are “scrupulously” compliant.

Berger said the CCLA wants to ensure the technology is used as intended – “For driving-related infractions as opposed to becoming a tool for whole-scale mass surveillance,” she said.

“Otherwise, what you potentially have is licence plate and location information for innocent people being hoovered up and stored for long periods of time. And that database then has the potential to allow police to track the whereabouts of people whose activities have given police no grounds to suspect of any wrongdoing.

“The potential for privacy invasion is tremendous.”

Sgt. Cairns said safeguards are already in place through “very stringent regulations,” while acknowledging concerns over privacy.

“We have to be very careful with our data,” he said.

SOURCE: Ottawa Citizen