Hamilton police ask for more drones, as calls for public consultation go unaddressed
CBC
After questions in recent weeks about how Hamilton Police Services (HPS) uses drones, the service faced its board members Thursday to share more information about its eyes in the sky.
But police and its board members discussed the technology only briefly, despite concerns voiced by researchers, community groups, the Ontario New Democrats and Ontario's former privacy commissioner over the HPS drone program.
Instead, a report from Hamilton police to the board said the service needs more drones, because it's been borrowing drones from the local fire department and Mohawk College.
The update to the police services board follows reporting from CBC Hamilton which revealed details about when, how and why police use drones.
It prompted privacy researchers to point out "red flags" in the program including a lack of transparency and gaps in its privacy impact assessment.
Ontario's former privacy commissioner also criticized the program and said if she was still in charge, she'd launch a province-wide investigation and ask the police service to halt its program.
Ontario's New Democrats and local community groups also called for a public consultation — but, as of Thursday, there seemingly won't be one.
Board member and Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch said Thursday while he believes drones can be helpful for finding missing people or reconstructing car crashes, he doesn't support using drones for surveillance.
"Being surveilled by drones is a very different activity," he said.
"It's not one I'd say the average person is prepared for or understands the nature of."
WATCH | Police across Canada use drones. Here's why that's raising privacy concerns:
He said the feeling of police surveilling someone is "very unsettling" but the idea of drones being used at large events like demonstrations is "even more unsettling."
Ward 7 Coun. Esther Pauls, also a board member, said someone called her about police drones and she didn't even know about them.
But Pauls, whose son is a staff sergeant with the police service, said she supports the use of drones.
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