VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – BC’s privacy commissioner will look at whether police are complying with privacy laws when they photograph cars and their licence plates.
    
Elizabeth Denham’s office says the investigation began after someone complained to her.

Automatic Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) programs take photos of cars and their licence plates using cameras mounted on police vehicles and compare them to licence plates linked with people who are of interest to police. It will instantly tell officers if there is a match.
    
Cara McGregor with the Privacy Commissioner’s Office says there are some specific questions they want answered.

“What happens to the data that is collected from licence plates where there isn’t a hit in the police database?  What happens to that information after it’s been collected?” she says.

“We’ve heard from the public, we’ve received a written submission. There are concerns about the use of ALPR by police and the implications because it’s a surveillance technology as well, so there are some concerns about privacy,” McGregor adds. “So the commissioner’s investigation is going to focus on the use of ALPR by the Victoria Police Department and our published report will give some guidance to law enforcement that’s using this technology in British Columbia.”

She says their investigation is already underway and the report is expected later this summer.

Commissioner Denham will also look at the section of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act which requires public agencies to report health and safety or environmental concerns to the public.

The review was prompted by a report from the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic, which looked at the extent to which public bodies are following disclosure rules.