Could a surveillance camera program, operated outside of the purview of the District of Sechelt, be the answer to what many perceive to be an increase in crime, arson and vandalism in the area?
That’s a question district council might be pondering following a presentation from Brett Turner, executive director of the Downtown Penticton Business Improvement Association (DPBIA), at Sechelt's June 25 committee of the whole meeting. Turner explained when the DPBIA rolled out the Remote Guard services program four years ago, the city chose not to operate it, but did agree to fund it. Turner noted, the City of Kelowna operates its own program.
“So, there are many instances where a municipality or city will operate its own camera program. And alternatively, we do it a bit differently. Our city gives us the money and we operate it. We did retain a law firm out of Vancouver to advise us when we started the program,” said Turner.
Turner told council the idea for surveillance cameras came after a temporary homeless shelter opened in downtown Penticton in 2021, which he says led to an increase in crime, graffiti and open drug use.
“Things kind of became chaotic around that area for a period of time. And we are a business improvement association and we're here to improve the viability and economics of our businesses,” said Turner. “During this time, we had, for example, bakeries where they would show up to bake at 4:30 in the morning, and there would be a camp built at the back door so the bakers couldn't get in.”
He says at the time, council had already approved four additional RCMP officers, but it’s taken four years for those positions to all become active.
He says that delay left a gap in security services, so it was decided a Remote Guard service deployed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. could help fill that shortfall. The cameras are programmed to send an alert if triggered by anything out of the ordinary, such as a fire, break-in or a large structure, such as a tent, being moved into spaces where they shouldn’t be. That sends an alert to a security company, which then looks at the images and calls police, fire or ambulance.
The cameras use a secure internet network to feed images back to a protected recording device in the BIA’s office. The cameras are active and recording full time.
Turner told council, the DPBIA launched the program to enhance safety and security in downtown Penticton, provide proactive security solutions, reduce the strain on bylaw officers and RCMP resources, offer faster response times to unwanted activity, and support the downtown business community.
“So, how it came about? So, it started with alignment with our city council's priorities,” said Turner. “We benefited immensely by [it] being an election year for us, and our city councillors running on a platform of providing safety and security, and this program became a fairly immediate win where they could unlock budget for us to operate this program.”
The initial pilot program was for 18 months and cost $40,000, which he says came solely out of the City of Penticton’s budget. He notes, the program could never have been such a success had it not been for the already close relationship the DPBIA enjoys with the RCMP and fire services. Turner adds the BIA also works closely with the city’s bylaw department.
Based on the success of that 18-month trial, the BIA made a successful proposal to council for $100,000 in funding to continue the program for an additional 22 months, which will eventually see the number of monitored cameras double from 15. Today, there are 25 monitored cameras in operation.
The downtown BIA has since transitioned the program to fall under the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce, so it can be expanded beyond the downtown core. Turner said an application for an additional $150,000 to help with that expansion was recently made to city council.
Coun. Alton Toth asked Turner about any challenges Penticton might be facing around prosecuting repeat criminals.
“We've been finding some challenges here with the prosecution service, not necessarily getting charges laid or getting convictions, the revolving door symptom that we hear so much about,” said Toth.
Turner said the cameras have also been helpful in prosecuting repeat criminals. He notes, there’s a jail located 30 minutes away and the courthouse is in downtown Penticton, so once someone appears before a judge and gets released, they often have nowhere to go — especially since the Greyhound bus service was terminated in 2021.
“So, in terms of the RCMP, yes, we experience a very similar scenario to a lot of communities where someone gets arrested, they're back on the street the next day, charges are dropped, etc.,” said Turner.
“We do have a local courthouse here and it does seem to be a bit of a revolving door. Having said that, we have had the camera program be part of prosecuting and catching much larger things such as murder, such as attacks.”
He adds, the cameras are recording all the time, so on occasion, they are asked for the footage, but that can only ever be released to the RCMP.
Toth also asked if there has been any conversation with the Privacy Commissioner.
“When we rolled this program out, our city chose to not operate it themselves and to give us the funding, and for us to do it,” said Turner. “They chose to be more of an arm's length, but were happy to fund it.”
He said as far as privacy laws in Canada are concerned, you can film anywhere where there's no perception of privacy, including a public field, city street, or city owned alleyways on private property with notice.
“As long as it's not somewhere like washrooms. There's a very clear list of how they define that. So, we took that and used that for how we deploy our cameras and so if there is private property that is in the view, we have an agreement with that private property owner and we have signage posted,” said Turner. “And if it is facing city-owned land or public land then, you know, we're free to film. We haven't had any issues to date. We're entering our fourth year of the camera program and nothing has come up thus far.”
