Brutality Canada

Mounties Use Secret Cameras at Pearson

Toronto Star
Walters, Joan

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are using a controversial computer face-recognition system to identify criminals at Pearson International Airport. The system, which is made by Imagis Technologies, is similar to one used at Ontario casinos, and it represents the first time a face-scanning system has been used at a North American commercial airport. According to RCMP spokesperson Michele Paradis, there is no general video scanning of travelers. Instead, when a suspicious person is spotted and subsequently detained, the RCMP's system uses face scans to help check identity and criminal record. According to Reid Morden, a director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service during the late 1980s who currently acts as an advisor to Imagis, face scans are an effective tool against terrorism, drugs, and organized crime. Face scans are currently being used by approximately 30 regular RCMP detachments, including units in western Canada, Newmarket, and the Maritimes. When a suspect is photographed, fingerprinted, and processed, the system enters the data digitally into each detachment's database, which means that officers in a patrol car can subsequently take a digital picture of an offender and compare it with the local database.

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