Hidden cameras OK in division

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This article was published 21/10/2016 (3482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SENIOR staff in the Pembina Trails School Division have the power to install secret cameras to gather evidence on suspected criminal activity.

The “covert video surveillance” policy does not specify any area that would be off-limits to the secret cameras.

The policy has been on the books in Pembina Trails since 2005 and appears to be the only such policy in Winnipeg schools. Indeed, some school divisions were surprised to learn it exists.

“We’ve never used it,” said a Pembina Trails official. “It was put in there for a what-if.”

The covert surveillance policy is under review, she said — the wording of some division policies is being shortened, and trustees and administrators are considering whether the word ‘covert’ will be changed.

Overt video surveillance has been common in larger schools for at least a couple of decades. Visible cameras are in hallways and entrances of larger schools, and some schools have exterior cameras, fed to monitors in the school office.

The Pembina Trails policy allows a school to install a secret camera after consultation with the division superintendent, police and division lawyer.

“We don’t spy on people in schools and workplaces without their knowledge and consent,” University of Manitoba ethicist Prof. Arthur Schafer sais Wednesday, although he acknowledged it is “not an absolute principle. There has to be serious criminal behaviour or a serious threat.”

Even so, simply justifying the policy on the grounds of criminal activity isn’t enough, said Schafer, founding director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics. It should not be used for investigating the theft of petty cash or a small amount of marijuana, he said as examples.

The benefit must outweigh the harm, said Schafer. The school division would have to be confident the secret cameras would do the job intended, would not catch innocent people going about their normal business and that there would be no alternative. “These conditions would rarely be met,” he said.

Given the overt cameras in schools, covert surveillance would presumably potentially be used in classrooms, staff rooms, change rooms and washrooms, Schafer said: “You’re looking to places where people expect individual privacy or group privacy and are entitled to it.”

The province said strict guidelines would cover secret cameras in schools.

“Manitoba Education and Training expects that school divisions would consult with their legal counsels to determine that such an approach is consistent with privacy legislation and the video surveillance guidelines developed by the Manitoba ombudsman,” said a provincial official. “This would include conducting a privacy-impact assessment and having protocols in place related to access to and secure storage of video evidence, and policies to address retention and destruction.”

The ombudsman’s policy is at http://wfp.to/surveillance.

Winnipeg School Division board chairwoman Sherri Rollins said, “WSD has closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the majority of our schools as a safety measure,” but all the cameras are visible. The division has shared video with police when warranted, she said. The cameras are all visible, and there are stickers at eye level advising the area is under video surveillance, Rollins said.

Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Norm Gould said having a covert surveillance policy sends a wrong message that there are serious problems.

“Why the need for a standard policy? Cases such as these are customarily dealt with on a case-by-case basis involving legal counsel and law enforcement as needed. The unintended consequence of codifying and formalizing such a policy may be to wrongly signal that the need for surveillance is prevalent when, in fact, cases like these are extremely rare,” Gould said.

In 2002, the Brandon School Division ran into criticism after word leaked out secret cameras had been placed in two offices and an entranceway in Neelin High School. It has never acknowledged its reason for installing the camera.

WSD trustees signed off years ago on secret surveillance that caught a custodian using a school library computer late at night to access online porn.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

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