Police plane’s effect on public trust ‘a dangerous thing to play with’

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A University of Saskatchewan associate professor of sociology says the Regina Police Service’s (RPS) patrol plane is part of a growing trend among law enforcement agencies, but one that must closely tread the line of public trust.

Scott Thompson, whose primary research interests include police surveillance, doesn’t dispute messaging that aerial resources can increase public safety.

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“It is something that has been shown to be helpful to police services,” he said following an invitational fly-along done by a Leader-Post reporter with Regina’s Aerial Support Unit (ASU).

“Police really push for them because they see the benefits. However, we have to understand that the cost is not just financial; the cost is also to community values.”

As more police services obtain aerial resources, whether it be drones or planes, Thompson said it’s inevitable these methods will become “much more routine and integrated into normal response.”

He said the responsible use of aerial units must be judged by the way resources are utilized and the level of transparency a police service is offering.

Aerial units can increase the risk of “overpolicing,” or spending an inordinate amount of time over areas thought to be “prone to crime,” said Thompson, noting it can skew crime data, enforce stereotypes and erode public trust.

“When you have policing that is seen as invasive, it starts to impact the general public and their sense of belonging and community — and that’s kind of a dangerous thing to play with.”

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Research on public opinion of air units typically shows far less support for using them in “routine policing activities,” continued Thompson.

“People are quite concerned about having this ‘eye in the sky’ constantly.”

However, comfort levels rise when the call is for an emergency situation, he said, adding that the public may even go so far as to applaud aircraft responses as “beneficial” in extreme situations.

A recent survey returned to the Board of Police Commissioners found that trust in the RPS was at about 80 per cent among 454 respondents — a notably small portion of Regina’s 229,000 residents.

Of those surveyed, 64 per cent were in agreement that the ASU increases public safety while 80 per cent approved of deployment in emergency situations or in-progress calls.

More generally, Thompson warned that the line drawn around people’s right to privacy can become murky in several ways when aerial surveillance is involved.

A lot of data is captured by a tool like an aerial camera and the people in that footage may not even realize it’s happening, he said.

“That becomes an issue with privacy rights and expectations of privacy,” Thompson said.

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The processes that govern who owns the rights to that footage are still being resolved. To date, it largely remains at the discretion of law enforcement to determine when, how and to whom that data is released.

For example, any video or images taken by the ASU belong to the RPS, a spokesperson confirmed. As of 2018, police data can be requested by the public through freedom of information laws, but it can be subject to redactions.

Research has been done on the topic, but academia is limited in its access to information that would allow for true third-party oversight of such programs.

Any statistics on the efficacy of surveillance technologies most often come straight from the horse’s mouth: the police itself.

“Because of that, we tend to get a more rosy picture of the success of these types of technologies than perhaps is completely accurate,” Thompson said.

Unlike aerial drones, a warrant isn’t required to surveil private property with an ASU, explained Sgt. Steve Wyatt, an RPS pilot.

On that, Thompson has reservations.

“This could be seen as problematic, as far as what the law is trying to protect against,” he said. “You might have the spirit of the law being violated, because the technology is capable of doing the same type of data collection.”

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A spokesperson from the RPS responded that the ASU “operates in accordance with the Canadian Aviation Regulation” and “in the exact same fashion as other police air support units.”

“The actions of the RPS ASU are subject, as are all police actions, to the scrutiny of both Public Complaints Commission and the courts,” read an emailed statement. “The actions of the RPS Air Support Unit have been tested multiple times in a court of law and found to be both lawful and appropriate.”

Thompson said in order to maintain trust, the RPS will have to continue to be frank about the tech and how it is used.

“Speak up if you’re concerned, because voices do matter,” he advised the public. “Police services want every single tool possible in order to keep people safe and that is completely understandable but, as researchers and the general public, it’s our job to step in and say when these steps are too far.”

lkurz@postmedia.com

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