VIDEO: Police access to video surveillance is increasing while Kelowna considers traffic camera system

The ability of the police to watch over us is increasing.

Vancouver Council has approved a motion giving police in that city full access to the video gathered from 221 traffic cameras.

The move is already getting some pushback from civil libertarians.

The city has begun an assessment of the legal and privacy issues raised by the decision.

So what about Kelowna?

"Things are a little different here," said Mayor Tom Dyas.

There are video traffic cameras in Kelowna, but they're all along Hwy 97.

They belong to the Ministry of Transportation, not the city.

"We don't have any cameras that are located on our municipal roads," Dyas said.

And any increase in police access to that video would be outside of the city's control.

"That would be a provincial ask," he explained.

However, the city does have surveillance cameras in the community.

"Like a homeowner may have cameras on their personal property, the city also has cameras on its assets," said Dyas.

Under the current policy, the video from these cameras can be made available to the RCMP.

"If there is a situation that happens on those assets and the RCMP are looking for information, then they would come to us and request that information be shared with them," he said.

But the sharing of that video is approved case-by-case.

"There's no carte blanche with regards to having access to it on a continual basis."

But as Kelowna grows there are increasing pressures to install cameras like the 221 of them on Vancouver streets.

Dyas said school zones and intersections with high incident rates are priorities.

"It's difficult to always be patrolling these areas appropriately," he said.

"It's something that we've had some discussion with the province about and we may, if they allow us, look at bringing those services into our community."

And Dyas took the opportunity to promote the city's CCTV Registry.

Residents who have security cameras at their home properties are invited to inform the RCMP of the presence of their camera or cameras.

Dyas said the city would like to see more homeowners get involved.

"Yes, we would," he said.

It can be very helpful for the police.

But it's also part of a seemingly inevitable trend toward more and more surveillance.

Like it or not, people can expect to live under the watchful eye of video cameras more than ever.