E-Watch - Public Safety Through Partnership

By bringing video to more places, these solutions extend the reach of existing personnel, allowing them to better monitor our urban center, out of the way locations, high traffic intersections and special events.

Recognizing that public safety isn’t solely a policing responsibility we are asking our corporate and business community to help fund additional cameras in their areas of the city. We believe that placement of an E-watch camera(s) in public view of your business will reduce crime, enhance the safety of your employees and clients and allow police to have immediate eyes in your area in the event of incident.

E-WATCH Mobile – Automated License Plate Recognition

ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) is a technology that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to automatically read license plate characters. Our mobile and fixed ALPR camera’s take a snapshot of the license plates and transmits plate identification to our database via secure VPN for comparison against our “hotlists” of plates.

This triggered alert will provide the officer with the following information:

• Alert Type (i.e. stolen Plate, wanted person, expired registration, etc..)
• A image of the captured plate matched to hotlist
• A image of the vehicle associated to the matched plate;
• Date and time of capture;
• GPS Coordinates associated to location of Capture;
• Name of Registered Owner of matched plate;
• Color of Vehicle associated to matched plate; and
• Make of Vehicle associated to matched plate.

ALPR is a proven technology that can be used to detect and prevent a wide range of illegal activity; however, it was ALPR’s benefits to improving road safety by detecting and deterring high-risk drivers that is of primary interest to CPS.

High-risk drivers are repeat offenders with patterned illegal driving behaviours (e.g.: recurring incidences of alcohol/drug impaired driving, traffic violations, collision involvement or suspended/prohibited drivers).

The CPS’s core strategic objectives include improving road safety. Although over the last decade road safety has improved significantly in our city and province, it remains a serious concern. Transport Canada reports Prince Edward Island still has one of the highest ratio of collision fatalities in the Country for both population and licensed drivers per 100,000.

To achieve our strategic goal of improving road safety we must raise public awareness and leverage technology to enhance the compliance and enforcement of our highway traffic act in alignment with the Prince Edward Island Road Safety Strategy – Toward Zero Tolerance 2015, which endorses ALPR technology as proven initiative to improve road safety.

LPR’s advantages of detection and intervention of high-risk drivers is the key focus of our initiative but it is important to mention our other uses of this technology.  The following is a complete list of Categories associated of our “hotlists” of license plates and their respective data contributor; all of which are authorized uses for law enforcement under Section 31(b) of the FOIPP Act.

• Plates with expired license plates
• Terminated plates
• Plates reported missing, lost or stolen
• Plates no longer associated to any vehicle
• Un-issued plates and un-issued stolen plates
• Unattached plates
• Plates registered to suspended drivers
• Plates registered to unlicensed drivers
• Plates associated to Stolen vehicles
• Plates associated to unpaid tickets for which a Summons has been issued
• Plate is attached to an AMBER alert, Missing Persons, or BOLO
• Plates related to active warrants, national security and electronic surveillance of plates associated to persons identified as being involved in criminality

It is our belief that ALPR technology bolsters the evidence based decision making process of our officers as it only will alert them when a vehicle on a hot list is matched; thereby, erasing any bias the public may think an officer has toward them, (i.e. race, age, gender, etc).

Why?

Increased safety – The presence of video surveillance cameras can have a positive effect on increasing public safety. Early detection can lead to crime prevention.

Crime deterrent – The mere presence of video surveillance cameras can act as a powerful crime deterrent. Individuals are less likely to commit a crime if they suspect that they are being monitored.

Provides evidence for investigations – Evidence that has been obtained from video gathered from video surveillance cameras has proven invaluable in many police investigations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How will these cameras be used?

A: Once an E-Watch camera is installed and activated, CPS plans to use what is called “passive monitoring” of the cameras. In other words, CPS members generally will not be watching the camera images in real time unless there is a directed police use to do so. For example if the Police receive a call about someone stealing from cars in the area of an E-Watch camera then that camera will be used to watch and gather evidence about the suspect until the Police arrive on the scene.

Q: Are the cameras recording?

A: Yes, recordings are kept for 14 Days. This allows police to investigate and solve crimes if criminal activity is reported within that time period in the areas where the cameras are situated. Recordings will not be reviewed or kept longer if no criminal activity has been reported.

Q: Will the cameras be used to see into homes or other buildings?

A: No. E-Watch cameras observe public spaces only, where the courts have held there is no reasonable expectation of privacy

Q: How will the CPS use these videos? Will other people have access to these video recordings?

A: Policies and procedures on the use and disclosure of video recording are in accordance with the guidelines established by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Audits shall be conducted periodically to ensure compliance with these established practices.

For more information about the E-Watch
Contact Terry Pauley
902-629-4172 or tpauley@charlottetown.ca