Police in Kelowna are creating a registry of surveillance cameras owned by businesses across the city, raising concerns from a leading privacy expert.

The public-private partnership will give local businesses the opportunity to register their security cameras with the Kelowna RCMP and the city. The project is designed to help police quickly locate and request video footage from a participating business during an investigation.

While such initiatives already exist elsewhere in B.C., Mike Larsen, president of the advocacy group B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA), warns that an expanded surveillance program must must be monitored to make sure it complies with privacy laws.

“It is always concerning when I see kind of a consolidation of surveillance powers that … creates a qualitative change in people’s experience of privacy as they go about in public,” he said.

Members of the public have the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy while in public, Larsen argued, citing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. B.C. also has laws around how personal data is collected by businesses and law enforcement, he added.

Similar programs have been reviewed by B.C.’s privacy commissioner in the past and found to be within the rules, Larsen said.

“But in general … the police, of their own initiative, could not install and operate a network of cameras for investigative purposes like this,” he said.

“Their use of surveillance, their collection of personal information has to be limited, it has to be balanced and proportionate, so involving the private sector in this allows them to extend their reach.”

In a statement announcing the project, the City of Kelowna said the program “aligns with security and privacy best practices while being easy for businesses to use.”

It added that businesses “maintain full control of their systems and footage” and that registering their devices simply informs investigators that their security footage may be available upon request.

The city and RCMP claim the network will speed up investigations and, therefore, help fight crime and improve public safety. Instead of spending time going door to door looking for security footage, officers can just check to see if there’s a participating business and make a request directly, they said.

“[It] improves our ability to identify suspects, make arrests and provide a report to the BC Prosecution Service,” said Cpl. Steven Lang, media relations officer, in a statement.

But while Larsen acknowledges there’s an argument to be made for a network to help with investigations, he questions the effectiveness of surveillance as a tool for public safety.

“When you look at the research on this in different jurisdictions, there’s definite civil liberties impacts. There’s very little evidence of improved public safety,” he said.

“The RCMP could and should conduct its own research on this right? Audit their own program and be able to say to the people what we’ve seen these benefits over a year or two years.”

In recent years, the RCMP has been found to be violating privacy laws while using another surveillance technology, Clearview AI facial recognition software. As a result, Larsen said Kelowna RCMP needs to be transparent about how it uses its new surveillance network.

“We want to see regular reporting on how it’s being used, when it’s being used [and] if there have been any, maybe, gaps in its use.”