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Every Single Toronto Transit Rider Will be Photographed
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by Rob Walker | October 24, 2007 at 12:01 pm
480 views | 25 Recommendations | 5 comments
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That's the plan for the GTA's subway system, streetcars and busses as the TTC installs 12,000 cameras to take constant images of riders.
At a cost of $18 million on an already overburdened transit system, do we really *need* 4 cameras per bus?
According to TTC chair Adam Giambrone they do, as 300 or so transit drivers are assaulted every year, not to mention assaults and harassment of riders.
The cameras, currently being installed on every bus, streetcar, subway car and at each station, will snap photos of each of the 1.5 million people who ride the TTC daily and the pictures made available to police if requested, Councillor Adam Giambrone said yesterday."There will be cameras everywhere," the TTC chair told the Sun. "Everyone who enters the TTC legally or illegally will be photographed."
He said the photographs will be accessible only to police to help solve crimes.
Not even a day after this story was posted, a complaint from a privacy watchdog has caused Ontario's privacy commissioner to launch an investigation into the installation of the cameras.
Ontario's privacy commissioner is launching an investigation into
the installation of thousands of security cameras throughout Canada's
largest public transit network following a complaint by an
international privacy watchdog that the system would violate the
privacy of Toronto commuters.London-based Privacy International
filed the complaint with the privacy commissioner Wednesday afternoon,
disputing the Toronto Transit Commission's claim that the $21-million
project would reduce crime levels and terrorism threats, and arguing
that transit officials have shown "contempt" for Canadian privacy law."Privacy International believes that the installation of cameras on the
scale proposed by the TTC fundamentally violates privacy law," the
complaint states.
Good, I hope they realize that these systems are rarely useful and are major intrusions into people's lives. Not only that, but as a friend pointed out to me, it's the social equivalent of locking your doors: it only keeps the honest people out.
Those that will commit crimes will for the most part either hide their faces or avoid transit.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 12:07 on October 24th, 2007
Nice find! Now I just need to remember to get dressed up whenever I might right the train -you know, so I'll look pretty in all of those photos!
Good stuff.
at 12:38 on October 24th, 2007
Rob Walker, thanks for this--it's a wonder we haven't seen more of this in the years since the London bombings. I bet Vancouver is cooking up a similar plan for the Olympics and the Skytrain. Heck, we already have armed guards on most trains...
Good stuff.
at 07:59 on October 25th, 2007
Funny you should mention it...
at 07:55 on October 25th, 2007
Blanket surveillance has not proven particularly useful in London: the recent terror attacks were all foiled due to perpetrator incompetence and vigilant passersby. The cameras were irrelevant except for news footage.
at 13:54 on October 28th, 2007
Check out the TTC Environmental Citizen's Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5784038545&ref=mf
I've been telling Adam Giambrone since mid-August, just purchase whatever you need for the TTC, then ship all the bills to the Prime Minster, Steven Harper (everyone knows he doesn't care about the environment, so lets make him accountable)!, and if the gov't complains we sue them for negligence to millions of people in Toronto...............see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5784038545&ref=mf