They are unmanned aerial vehicles -- better known as drones -- and they are here in British Columbia.
A briefing note for the B.C. government's director of police services says the regional RCMP operations manual does not prohibit the Mounties from using drones in the province.
"UAV may not be used for covert surveillance, except in special circumstances where it alleviates imminent risks to life or safety [warrant required]," said the Feb. 19 document for Clayton Pecknold, obtained by The Tyee via Freedom of Information.
The briefing note said the RCMP has 18 drones under a 2010-established national program, but a Transport Canada spokeswoman said that the RCMP's E Division was granted Special Flight Operations Certificates to fly drones based in Prince George, Kelowna, Surrey and Nanaimo.
"All four [certificates] are currently valid but the details are not available for safety and security reasons," said Sara Johnston. "Those are the only [certificates] we have issued to police forces in B.C."
The previous Transport Canada permit for the RCMP, which expired in August, allowed it to fly drones as high as 275 feet above ground during daytime and 100 feet at night, but not over spectators or within 30 metres of buildings, vehicles or persons involved in an operation.
The briefing note said the RCMP drones "are primarily used for search and rescue (of missing persons), crash-scene analysis and crime scene mapping," but police had not completed an assessment of the impact of drones on privacy.
"National privacy laws require UAV users to demonstrate the need for surveillance activities and account for and secure personal information acquired," said the briefing note.
RCMP did not respond with any comment after a Tyee query.
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner said E Division consulted with B.C.'s official privacy watchdog. A spokeswoman said Commissioner Elizabeth Denham "has significant concerns about the use of drones by law enforcement" but has not made any announcement regarding a public report on drones. Denham does not have the power to approve or reject policies or programs, but can offer guidance and feedback or investigate privacy breaches.
The briefing note called drones a "low cost, low risk resource for missions deemed too dull, dirty or dangerous for manned aircraft." Drones can be operated for 1/30th the cost of manned aircraft and also have applications in scientific research, energy sector mapping and forest fire detection. Beyond the military use for "threat elimination," drones can be equipped with facial recognition systems, license plate scanners, thermal cameras, cellular scanners and wifi sniffers.
B.C. Civil Liberties Association's Micheal Vonn said drones exist in a "policy vacuum" without any public consultation about the privacy, safety and cost implications.
"Everything about how Canadians want to see these new technologies employed and what the obvious dangers are have really not been up for public discussion," Vonn said. "We don't want to have policy by disaster, policy by scandal, the way that we have had in some of the new technologies, like Tasers."
No longer sci-fi
Transport Canada's Johnston said 293 permits were issued from Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2012 for drones in civil airspace. A report scheduled to be released Nov. 18 by Block G Privacy and Security Consulting will shed more light on the quiet spread of drones in Canada and how police agencies are anxious to embrace the technology.
"What this report is going to say is that the idea that municipal police aren't involved with UAVs is problematic on the basis of the findings of this report that show the municipal police departments have got seconded personnel who are doing training with U.S. military on drones in Washington State right now," said Vonn, who has read the report.
Drones range greatly in size and appearance. The Seattle Police Department had two, 1.6 kilogram, Draganflyer X6 helicopter-style drones that cost $41,000 each until Mayor Mike McGinn bowed to public pressure and cancelled the program last February.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a fleet of Predator B drones, similar to the ones used in combat over Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. CBP drones, piloted remotely from California, have flown surveillance missions over the northern border with Canada since 2009. The 11-metre long vehicles, which cost $17 million each, can cruise at 313 kilometres an hour, up to 15,000 metres above ground and operate as long as 20 hours.
In October, Richmond-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates announced an $11.3 million contract to supply AeroVironment Raven B drones to Canada's Department of National Defense.
"Raven can be operated manually or programmed for autonomous operation, utilizing the system's advanced avionics and precise GPS navigation," said the AeroVironment website. "With a wingspan of 4.5 feet and a weight of 4.2 pounds, the hand-launched Raven provides aerial observation, day or night, at line-of-sight ranges up to 10 kilometres."
Got drones?
In February, B.C.'s Justice Ministry seemingly awoke to the drone phenomenon and its top policing bureaucrat wanted the province's police forces to provide him a progress report on who had drones and who wanted drones.
On Feb. 22, Pecknold wrote to RCMP E Division Commander Craig Callens and Traffic Services Supt. Denis Boucher, B.C. RCMP detachments and integrated road safety units, chiefs of independent municipal police departments chairs of municipal police boards, and the chiefs of Transit Police and the Lillooet-based Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police Services.
His letter said the province was "in the process of assessing the deployment of this technology" and requested copies of policies and procedures, privacy impact assessments or verification of consultation with the privacy commissioner, and Transport Canada compliance documents.
"Several, but not all police agencies responded to the Ministry's request," said a statement to The Tyee from the Ministry of Justice.
RCMP and civic police in Nelson, Victoria and Vancouver filed the only responses to the original request.
"The only responder who indicated they currently have a UAV is the RCMP who provided the supporting documentation that was requested," said the Ministry statement. "On Oct. 23, a reminder was sent to police agencies Abbotsford, New Westminster, West Vancouver, Oak Bay, Saanich, Central Saanich, Delta. None currently have UAVs -- nor do Stl'atl'Imx Tribal Police and Transit Police."
Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said: "At this time, Transit Police does not have any drones or the intention of acquiring any drones. Accordingly, we do not have a policy statement or a [privacy impact assessment] regarding drones."
"There is also no current plan to start using them," said Vancouver Police Const. Brian Montague. "We simply would not create a policy or procedure for a tool we do not have."
Block G partner Adam Molnar wrote in an April paper titled "The Geo-Historical Legacies of Urban Security Governance and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics" that the Vancouver Police Department's Military Liaison Unit trains four to six times a year with U.S. National Guard and U.S. Army personnel in Yakima, Wash., and drones are involved.
"These joint exercises involve live ammunition exercises with the assistance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and 'reality based training' of urban tactical military deployments," Molnar wrote.
Original Article
Source: thetyee.ca
Author: Bob Mackin
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