Winnipeg mayoral candidate wants city to join growing drone policing movement

If you are wondering what that futuristic device is peeking through your windows or into your balcony, chances are becoming more likely that it is a drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle that is growing in popularity among basically anyone with an interest in snooping into your affairs.

Businesses, governments and average citizens have been frequently tied to the use of drones. But one group that has perhaps more to benefit from using UAVs, as they are known, are police themselves. And the number of drones used on that front could be set to skyrocket.

Consider Winnipeg, where a mayoral candidate has declared his intentions to bring UAVs to the local police force.

Gord Steeves announced that as mayor he would buy two drones, at a price of about $35,000 each, to help in police investigations, and to alleviate the burden placed on the city's police helicopter.

“This is a cost-effective way to augment the services provided by the Winnipeg Police Service helicopter,” Steeves said in a statement. “By using UAVs, we can improve safety for everyone.”

The increasingly common use of UAVs has raised serious privacy questions across Canada. A recent incident in which a Vancouver resident found his highrise apartment being spied on by such a drone prompted serious debate about personal boundaries and Canadian privacy laws. One expert said that unless the drone captures images of a resident naked, there isn't much police can do.

“Privacy laws regulate what organizations can do with personal information or video or other surveillance they take of other people, or intrusions into their privacy," lawyer Ryan Berger told Yahoo Canada News. "But there’s very little regulating of what an individual can or cannot do.”

In the hands of police agencies, however, there are rules in place about what can be done and what can't be done. Official use of drones is governed by Transport Canada (while the Department of National Defence covers military use).

Under Transport Canada's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle policy, the devices must be maintained and operated by those who have obtained a Special Flight Operation Certificate (SFOC). That policy governs citizens and police groups alike.

Steeves said the Winnipeg drones would be used to investigate specific incidents and not deployed for general surveillance without a warrant or specific intent.

Drones used in other areas of the country could be an indication of what would be in store for the city.

The first Canadian police investigation to use the UAV, indeed the first such investigation in North America, was conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police in 2007, during a homicide investigation near Kenora.

The drone was used to collect photographic evidence in a remote area outside the northern Ontario city, which were later submitted as evidence in a trial.

Two years later, Saskatoon police announced that they had secured the use of a Draganfly X6 – a remote control helicopter capable of flying over crime scenes or traffic collisions and capture aerial images.

Since then, the use of drones has expanded through the RCMP, which currently deploys such devices across the prairies, in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada.

Most recently, RCMP in Nova Scotia announced they would deploy up to five UAVs, and the Yellowknife detachment announced securing their own UAV.

RCMP units have routinely secured SFOCs to use drones to take aerial images of vehicle collisions and crime scenes.

An outline released when B.C. Mounties began using drones in 2011 stated that without access to UAVs, collision reconstructionists were forced to arrange costly flyovers from traffic service helicopters.

Last year, Saskatchewan drones were used to rescue a man who had walked away from a rollover crash. CBC reported the man became lost in the woods, and was only able to be found thanks to the drone's infrared camera.

Ontario's Halton Regional Police once used a drone to uncover a secret rural farm growing $744,000 in illegal marijuana.

Perhaps most controversially, OPP reportedly used drones to monitor a tense highway blockade at the Tyendinaga First Nation, stating the devices were only used to take photographs and video of the scene.

Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, has studied the issues raised by UAVs and in 2012 released a report calling the careful use of drones in society. She recommended that all use of drones by police, for the intention of "surreptitious surveillance," should require a warrant.

"Whether surveillance-enhanced UAVs are used by government or commercial entities, or model aircraft by private individuals, privacy issues must be addressed. The possibility of near-constant surveillance raises significant concerns related to the chilling effect this is likely to have on public life and individual freedom,” she wrote.

“As UAVs become more widely used, so too does the potential for widespread deployment of panoptic structures. UAV surveillance that intrudes on private settings and activities will require significant justification."

As drone use inevitably continues to expand in police activity, significant care must be taken to ensure checks and balances. But denying police the right to use the devices is not in the cards. Anyone and everyone are able to obtain their own drone these days. And police services are among the few who can put them to reasonable use, hobbyists aside.

Privacy laws are in place, but will need to evolve. That goes for everybody, but law enforcement agencies are at the top of the list.