Finding a reason

We're caught on camera far less than LondonersNeed for video surveillance a hot issueToronto balances security, privacy
NAOMI CARNIOLSTAFF REPORTERFour o'clock on Friday afternoon. Businessmen crowd into a subway train at Union Station. Shoppers with groceries pack into a hot streetcar on Spadina Ave. At Eglinton and Yonge, a bus crawls through rush-hour traffic. Every seat is taken.
Now imagine bombs in the subway, the streetcar, the bus.
Amid the resulting chaos and carnage, a massive police investigation is launched. They employ every available means, from knocking on doors to forensic science to find any trace of those responsible.
But one question looms large: Would Toronto authorities find video surveillance images of the suspects as fast as police in London did over the past week?
Probably not. Yet strangely, there appears to be no sense of urgency.
"It depends where we're talking about," City of Toronto spokesman Brad Ross said.
Certain public spaces like Nathan Phillips Square, Yonge-Dundas Square and government buildings like City Hall and Metro Hall have video surveillance in place. Other buildings that are off limits to the public, such as water treatment plants, are also monitored by video cameras. "There is a distinct public interest in making sure they are secure," Ross said.
The video images are stored on a computer hard drive for 30 days and then automatically overwritten.
But unlike London, where four bombs in subways and on a bus killed 54 people last week, we don't have cameras on our street corners.
"The city of Toronto doesn't have a policy of surveillance cameras on street corners ...," Ross said. "It's just not something that the city does."
Even Julian Fantino, the former Toronto police chief who is now Ontario's commissioner of emergency management, chose his words carefully yesterday, but made it clear that he would like to see more security cameras in Ontario's cities.
"We have to respect the assurance of privacy issues and concerns but having said all of that, in today's very precarious, dangerous climate I think we need to look at the greater good and balance that out and make sure we do everything we can to provide safety to our communities."
"There's no perfect solution on this," Fantino said. "Cameras are just one more assistance that will help us ensure a greater public safety and security."
In the case of the London bombings, the cameras were "a critical piece of the investigation," Fantino said.
London has the highest number of cameras per capita of any city in the world, said Soumilya Banerjee, a senior analyst at business consultants Frost & Sullivan who specializes in video surveillance trends.
"In London, it's close to one camera for every 18 people," Banerjee said. "And the average Londoner going about their everyday business can be captured on camera at least 300 times a day."
Ross said he wasn't aware of any plans by the city to add more surveillance cameras. "But security is something that is always looked upon with a view to improving."
The TTC has hundreds of cameras on subway platforms, near ticket booths, at bus depots and other locations.
"Numbers don't mean anything if the cameras are not properly set up for what you want to catch," said TTC chief general manager Rick Ducharme.
Cameras were not necessarily installed because of terrorism fears. Cameras facing ticket booths were to ensure safety of TTC staff. Others were trained on unmanned entrances to detect problems such as passengers caught in the gates.
Things changed after the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid.
"I think Madrid brought to light specifically the fact that we are very susceptible to attacks on transit. So that really pushed us to get very serious and look at the system, especially in terms of the location of cameras," Ducharme said. The TTC added new digital cameras in some locations. Older cameras had relied on videotapes.
Just weeks before the London bombings, Toronto police walked through the subway system to determine other spots for surveillance cameras. "We've already installed a lot of cameras based on that investigation," Ducharme said.
Improving surveillance at every station is the ultimate goal. "But we're prioritizing stations based on volume and their strategic locations as far as trains moving through them," Ducharme added.
The highest volume stations, in order, are: Bloor-Yonge, St. George, Finch and Union.
A handful of buses are also equipped with surveillance cameras as part of a pilot project, Ducharme said.
Like the TTC, GO Transit uses surveillance equipment. "We have increased video surveillance since 9/11," spokeswoman Stephanie Sorensen said.
Video cameras are located at GO stations and in parking lots.


It seems to me that everybody or nearly everbody is going crazy at how unprepared Canada is for the terrorist attack yet to happen (for some unknown reason, it hasnt happened yet). Articles like this seem to point out the shortcomings of lower-level security compared to cities like London with far greater populations, but that is but one point this kind of an article misses.

I am terribly disgusted at how people are looking at the surveillance systems in place and thinking we are terribly unmonitored and therefore unprepared. These attacks are, again, only undermining our freedom. Efforts to increase surveillance in my opinion is a victory for these so-called freedom-hating terrorists, though I'm not entirely sure it is freedom that the terrorists detest. Their goals have been articulated and repeated by administrations that lie to their publics. But that is one slice of this topic I am not going to get into. The point is, it is absurd to try to tell any public that the way to win freedom from freedom haters is to be less free and surrender to greater surveillance and paranoia.