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Cameras won't stop gang violence: privacy commissioner

Gang related violence won’t be reduced if Vancouver decides to maintain a street camera surveillance system after the 2010 Games, B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner said.

“The question has to be asked, will cameras stop gangsters from assassinating each other?” David Loukidelis told The Tyee. “I think the pretty obvious answer is no.”

A report urging the city to consider $2.6 million from the province and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit for closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras will appear before council Thursday.

If approved, funding could be used to install cameras near the entertainment district, city-run ‘live sites’ and the cruise ship terminal. The city's bid would also create a control room at Vancouver’s Emergency Operations Centre.

The report refers to any surveillance network as “temporary in nature,” but Loukidelis said it’s reasonable to question whether the city would keep such a system in place after the Games.

After all, Metro Vancouver has been shaken by 40 shootings and 17 dead since January. And Athens retained the cameras it set up for the 2004 Summer Games.

“The fact that cameras are there does not make the case for their ongoing use,” Loukidelis said. “The case still has to be made that they are a necessary measure and that they’ll be an effective measure.”

Though CCTV can help police identify and apprehend suspects in violent attacks, there’s been little evidence to suggest the technology reduces overall crime rates, he said.

A 2005 study in the UK concluded closed circuit cameras there didn't prevent most crime or boost feelings of safety.

In meetings with representatives from B.C.'s office of the information and privacy commissioner and its federal counterpart, the ISU promised that Games-time cameras would not be set up in a grid pattern on downtown streets, Loukidelis said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.

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