Civil rights organization urges city hall to delay purchase of gunshot-location technology

Thestar.com
July 23, 2018
Wendy Gillis

Calling the technology a “fundamental shift to state surveillance,” the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is urging city hall to delay the purchase of equipment that detects gunshot locations through a network of publicly placed microphones.

In a letter sent to Mayor John Tory over the weekend, the civil rights organization criticized the Toronto police board’s last-minute decision Thursday to approve “privacy invasive technologies” --the “ShotSpotter” microphone system, as well as the purchase of 40 new surveillance cameras to be placed across the city.

Michael Bryant is the executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The CCLA has raised concerns about Mayor John Tory’s plan to install ShotSpotter audio surveillance technology in Toronto, warning that the new technology is “entirely untested” as a police tool and may not be effective at reducing gun violence.

ShotSpotter is American proprietary technology that feeds police real-time information about the location of gunfire by installing a series of gunshot-detecting sensors in public places. According to a list of municipal clients on ShotSpotter’s website, the technology has never been used in Canada.

Michael Bryant, executive director of the CCLA, said his organization is “waving a big red flag” about the technology’s potential to violate constitutional privacy rights, which would in turn waste policing and equipment costs and risk the admissibility of any evidence obtained.

“Worse, if placed in poor or diverse neighbourhoods, the new technology may be an unconstitutional sucker punch to racialized communities of Toronto,” reads the letter, signed by Bryant and Brenda McPhail, director of the CCLA’s privacy, technology and surveillance project.

City council asked to approve $44-million plan to reduce gun violence

The move comes as city council is set to vote on whether to approve the approximately $4-million cost, spread over two years, for the cameras and the ShotSpotter system. The Toronto police board unanimously approved the investment --contingent on funding --following the surprise motion brought forward by Tory, a board member, in the name of decreasing gun violence.

Tory said he hoped the expenditure would be eventually covered by the provincial and federal governments, but he stressed there was an urgency to move ahead because council meets for the final time this week before December, due to the municipal election.

The police board agreed there was a need for quick action due to the council schedule, and unanimously passed Tory’s motion --with the added requirement that police chief Mark Saunders report to the board in September about the technologies and what oversight is in place.

“At the moment we need, right now, to get on with this,” Toronto police board chair Andy Pringle said during Thursday’s meeting.

No information was provided at the meeting about the possible locations for either kind of technology. The ShotSpotter CEO told the Star last week the devices are usually placed in high-crime areas.

The CCLA is asking for a 10-day delay to prepare a legal risk analysis --which would mean the measure could not be approved during the current council session, effectively postponing it until after the fall election.

Holding off on the vote “would also permit community feedback, and allow you to share the (Toronto police) case for this purchase, before the money is spent,” the letter states.

“Now is the opportunity for the city to decide what kind of city we want to be,” said Bryant in an interview Sunday, saying citizens and politicians must consider if they want the ubiquitous surveillance that’s in, for example, London, England, where “you cannot be alone” in public due to cameras.

“This is not a decision that ought to be made in haste. Period.”

Tory said police leaders recently requested the new technology at a meeting held to discuss ways to reduce gun violence, amidst a spate of shootings this summer. So far this year, 27 people have been fatally shot, up from 17 this time last year, though comparable to 25 fatal shootings in mid-July 2016.

Don Peat, a spokesperson for Tory, said as the city’s plan to address gun violence has been developed, Saunders “made it clear there are investments that could be made in technology that will help police keep Toronto safe.”

“Mayor Tory supports the chief and our frontline police officers and wants to make sure they have the tools they need to help them do their job,” Peat said in an email Sunday.

He added that when Saunders delivers the report in September, “members of the public, including the CCLA, will have the chance to deliver their input to the board about this technology at that time.”

Peat also noted that almost 40 CCTV cameras are already up in Toronto.

Acting police board chair Jim Hart said on Sunday the September meeting will be an opportunity to consider what additional steps board members may wish to take.

“As with any matter, the Board has the ability to exercise its governance and oversight role to determine whether appropriate policies and safeguards are in place, including for technology used by the Toronto Police Service,” Hart said in a statement.

Members of the public attending last week’s meeting made last-minute deputations decrying the lack of public consultation on the purchase of both the ShotSpotter technology and the new surveillance cameras. If their purchase is approved, the number of Toronto police-owned CCTV cameras would more than double --from 34 to 74 devices.

The CCLA says privacy best practice guidelines from both federal and provincial watchdogs say public consultation should come before any decision regarding video surveillance.

Regarding SpotShotter, the organization says it is “entirely untested” regarding any privacy impacts, how it might be used in court, and its constitutionality in general.

“There is also a profoundly practical question yet to be answered: What is its purpose, exactly, and will that purpose be met? Does the City have reliable evidence that ShotSpotter technology is effective at reducing gun violence?” reads the letter.

The technology, used in approximately 90 cities in the United States, works by placing acoustic sensors on buildings and lampposts to detect and time-stamp gunshots. The data is then used to triangulate where the shot was fired, precise information that’s then shared almost simultaneously with police services --within 30 to 45 seconds of a trigger being pulled.

In New York City, where the technology was adopted in 2015, the ShotSpotter has proven to be a “highly effective crime-fighting tool,” a spokesperson told the Star last week, helping officers “respond to shootings quicker and investigate them more precisely than ever before.”

Other cities have raised concerns about false alarms. A 2016 report by Forbes found that between 30 to 70 per cent of ShotSpotter alerts resulted in police being unable to find evidence of shootings.

Speaking to the Star, the company’s CEO, Ralph Clark, said at least three sensors have to detect a pop or a bang before an incident report created and police are informed. He said misclassification is “negligible.”

Clark called his company’s technology a “very narrow type of surveillance.”

City council is expected to vote on the funding Monday.