Jerrold Litwinenko at BlogTO had a good post yesterday on public space surveillance, and the comment section has a good debate going.
Last week, when a hail of bullets were fired at a moving car at Yonge & Shuter, just a few steps away from the Eaton Center, I was instantly reminded of the horrific 2005 Boxing Day shooting.
Yesterday, Toronto Police Services issued a press release regarding last week’s shooting, including still images (image1, image2) acquired from nearby private surveillance cameras that they hope will help them identify and apprehend possible suspects.
Would police have any leads were it not for the video footage? I have little doubt that the media will we be hailing the use of surveillance cameras should these videos lead to arrests and convictions. But should the police have their own cameras mounted on street corners and other public spaces?
For a more in-depth look at the legislation around security cameras in public spaces, you can read an article by lawyer Trevor deBoer published in our Dec. 2004 issue of Spacing.
illustration by Matthew Daley
One comment
The TPSC is starting up a campaign on this matter. It’s still in the preliminary stages of its conception, but the first meeting was last night, and we had an excellent discussion in which we articulated and solidified all of the reasons that we feel the ways we do about surveillance.
For more info, contact dan[at]publicspace.ca (obviously replacing the “[at]” with a “@”).