VAUGHAN CITY HALL VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CITIZEN POP-IN TEST (passed –barely, with a “D” grade)
December 20th, 2009
So many municipal security operations. So little time!
This time it was Vaughan’s turn for a City Hall Video Surveillance Citizen Pop-In Test. I also filed six Freedom of Information requests.
(Note to self. Next time you pop-in on an Ontario municipality, don’t wear your Ontario Ombudsman’s baseball cap!)
Cutting to the chase, Vaughan Passed. Barely. With a “D”.
We offer this video. And the transcript.
VAUGHAN CITY HALL VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CITIZEN POP-IN TEST (passed –barely, with a “D” grade)
(Click here to go directly to the clip on YouTube)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BEGINS
MISSISSAUGAWATCH [lost as usual and not sure which building is Vaughan City Hall]
I’m here at the City of Vaughan. Actually I think that over there is [sic] the Vaughan Administrative Offices —their town hall.
I pulled in here because I got to set up my Bedtime Buddy Bear, which is what I use whenever I go into any Ontario municipal building, in this case —so allow me to start.
[speaks into "Bedtime Buddy Bear" audio recorder] It is Friday, December the 18th, 2009 and I’m here somewhere near the Town of Vaughan —City office buildings and stuff. We’re gonna go that way because I saw a sign that said that the Administrative Offices are that way. We’re going to be filing Freedom of Information.
Bedtime Buddy Bear on. I’d love to bring the video camera in but I don’t know what their policies are. And for fu—oh! I was just gonna say, for fun, what we would do is do a video surveillance survey. And just as I looked up like that I could actually see a Pelco and take a look here. [turns camera around and zooms in on the housing of a Pelco PTZ video surveillance camera].
Now you’re seeing exactly what I did. You don’t actually see the whole fixture —just that part. But what we’re gonna do is just drive over.
There’s the Pelco.
There should be on that door, or somewhere, some warning that there’s video surveillance being used.
Here. What does it say? “NO ENTRY EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY” that’s fair. And I can’t read that quite right now, but I will later on.
And that, I believe, over here, is the public building. I think that’s Vaughan yeah, see, “City of Vaughan”. So, and I’m looking, ooooO, look at this. Ooooo. Yep, these people use video surveillance. Now the question is, is there a video surveillance sign on the doors?
Let’s just do this here first. Let’s see what they got here. Operating hours. There’s a sign there, don’t know what it is. I’ll take pictures afterwards, but I certainly don’t see any— They got a NO SMOKING here.
Let’s at least do this first, and what we’re doin’ is just a drive-around of how many video surveillance cameras that they have.
So right now we’re on video surveillance. And of course, so are they.
[Spots another Pelco.]
That one is the more conventional fixed camera aiming at the parking lot.
[Failing to see any video surveillance sign around the back, MISSISSAUGAWATCH retraces and drives in by way of the front]
So we go in through here and let’s see, what’s the first video surveillance camera that will pick people up. Actually surprisingly, no one [sic] you’ve got the Pedestrian sign —whoa look at this.
[Spots another Pelco.]
There it is. I need a tripod.
Anything in through here, parking lot —oh, look at this.
[Spots Video Surveillance Advisory sign]
OK, they pass.
[Swing tour of parking lot to find a place to park and spots several interesting signs]
Customer “Commissioner Parking Only” hee hee. Oooo. I wonder what it says that there’s no commissioners parking anywhere along here.
All right enough fun for today. Let’s go in and see what surprises Vaughan has in store for us here.
[Dip to black and then MISSISSAUGAWATCH back inside car]
OK, I finished filing, I think it was six —no, yeah, six Freedom of Informations. They’re not gonna like them, but boy, we can get a lot of information regarding how City of Vaughan is structured, especially in its treatment of citizens and in its quality of record-keeping.
So we’re here, had a good look around at the video surveillance. I would say that for the most part —minimal, it’s not the [makes rude gesture] whack-job kind of video surveillance camera here there and everywhere 3-for-1 sale kind that you get at the City of Mississauga, where, you know, every corner that you turn in the Civic Centre has got a video surveillance camera.
Would I give this place a pass? I’d give it perhaps a “D”. You know, it does have the one sign and it’s got Primary Response, which is a contract security company, so that you at least know that there’s a complaints system that’s provincial.
So, you know, I’m not about to give it a complete Thumbs Up and we’ll see what it has in relation to by-laws and policies, and again, you know, we’ll see to the extent to which Staff comply to policies and the quality of the oversight of the security guards.
It’s entirely possible, for example, that there might not be much in the way of bans, trespass and arrests. That’s one thing that I’ve asked for —all records of bans, trespass and arrests, including tags and everything since January 2005. But. There might not be that many so, we’ll see.
And then there’s in a brochure that I found on Graffiti —and it mentions, “What is the City doing about Graffiti?” and it mentions “launching a new by-law in the spring 2009″ so I’ve asked for all records pertaining to the drafting and implementation of that.
And also something really cool, it says “Working with Police on a database”! So! I can’t tell you how happy I am about that! ‘Cuz I also requested records pertaining to that database including an empty shell of that database to be put on DVD.
Don’t think we’re gonna get it. Who knows how much money they’re going to ask for the records. Right now I put down thirty dollars but that’s not all I’m gonna pay.
Anyway, now that I’m here, I’m also interested in doing a little graffiti survey. So, we’ll do that now.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT ENDS
Signed,
The Mississauga Muse
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