Police cameras may capture licence plates: P.E.I. privacy commissioner

P.E.I.'s privacy commissioner has ruled that Charlottetown police canuse an automated camera system to capture images of licence plates.

Karen Rose ruled in the matter last month beforeretiring ascommissioner.

In the 32-page ruling, she said collecting licence plate information for law enforcement purposes was acceptable.

Rose did, however, recommend that to be more transparent with the public, the police should provide more information on its website to explain what information is collected and how it is used.

System used starting in March 2018

Charlottetown Police Services set up the system in March 2018 to automatically take photographs of the backs of cars.

The Automated Licence Plate Reader system (ALPR) automatically reads plates and compares them to what police call a "hot list" of licences that have been flagged for issues.

If there is a match, ALPR notifies the force so that members can investigate.Licence plate data that does not produce a match is kept for 14 days before being deleted, in case a crime involving the vehicle has been committed but not yet reported.

The "hot list" contains information from Charlottetown police, the provincial government, and other police agencies.

A challenge was launched after the system identified an expired vehicle registrationin August 2019 and police went to the driver's home to issue the ticket.The driver complained to the privacy commissioner that thismethod of identifying an expired registration was a violation of privacy.

The cameras are located at fixed locations around the city and also on the roofs of some police vehicles.

City police estimate thatALPRtechnology makes about 100 "hits" (matches)a day, or about 3,000 a month.

They call the systeman efficient way to help prevent a wide range of illegal activity, such as vehicle theft, unlicensed drivers, and unpaid parking tickets, along with help in finding missing persons and locating those with outstanding warrants.

Police officials told the commissioner that only those vehicle registrations that have been expired for at least six months are put on the list the system uses to find a match.

More from CBC P.E.I.