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Thanks to an agreement with Telus, Drayton Valley now has cameras at four major intersections on the outskirts of the municipality.
Cody Rossing, the manager of enforcement and emergency management for the Town, says the four cameras will have the same purpose as the CCTV cameras at the Team Auction Centre and the skate park.
“They’re not photo radar cameras, whether with speed or with lights or anything like that,” says Rossing. “The purpose of the cameras, essentially, is to help deter crime, and if there is a crime that occurs, [it] provides that CCTV video to the investigating officer if required.”
The cameras, which are located at 50th Street north and Hwy 22, 50th Ave west and Hwy 22, 50th Street south and Hwy 22, and 50th Ave east and 35 Street, were part of a pilot project that the Town had with Telus several years ago. Rossing says that once the pilot was completed, the next steps weren’t taken and many of the cameras were removed from the community.
At the time, the cameras weren’t monitored, and nobody could access the information on them. The four cameras that weren’t removed from the community have been inactive until recently.
In their agreement with Telus, the Town is given the cameras in exchange for paying for the streaming of the videos to the town’s system.
While the cameras are in place to deter crime, Rossing says the Town has to follow the guidelines from the office of the privacy commissioner.
“All of our videos are only retained for 14 days,” says Rossing. “We’re making sure that data isn’t being stored longer than it needs to be .”
He says if there is an incident where law enforcement needs to make a request for the footage, they have a very short period of time to do so. On top of that, law enforcement needs to meet the requirements of the Access to Information Legislation before they can get it.
Rossing says it could be possible for members of the public to see some of the video if they have met the requirements of the Access to Information Act, paid the fees, and had a valid reason for their request. However, Rossing says they will never have access to a live feed from the cameras.
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