Fast as a speeding bullet, the video clips stream in.
When gunfire erupted on a busy downtown Toronto subway platform Thursday morning, leaving a teenager wounded and commuters in panic, paramedics and firefighters were among the first to respond.
And close behind were detectives anxious to scrutinize the Osgoode station's video footage, which didn't take long. Within a few hours, a photo of the suspected shooter was posted on the police website and scooped up by media outlets. Yesterday, investigators continued to piece together his trail, in part by using cameras at other points on the transit system.
“Our information is that he boarded a bus on Jane Street and went south from the Downsview station,” Detective Mark Shooter said. After the shooting, he said, the man's movements are unclear.
As in many Western cities where cameras in public places are now ubiquitous, the images of the fugitive gunman are signs of the times.
But in Toronto over the past couple of years the growth has been dramatic. And in contrast to the grainy, washed-out VHS film of yore, the quality of digital footage is steadily improving.
Not everybody is cheering. Some privacy advocates still view cameras as intrusive. But like them or not – and police say that most people do – the use of cameras as a crime-fighting tool, particularly video cameras, is here to stay.
In malls and government buildings, at bank machines and on public transit, even on the highways, cameras are everywhere. Climb into a taxi cab and your picture will be snapped there, too.
“You will not find an investigation of any consequence today where there isn't some CCTV material,” said Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash. “One of the first questions our detectives always ask now is, ‘What CCTV footage is available?' because it has become so pervasive.”
A string of recent incidents underscores that.
On the same day as the Osgoode shooting, police released a video clip showing segments of an overnight killing earlier in the week, outside a northwest Toronto auto shop.
“I installed them because of the cars that were stolen from here,” said Zeb Automotive Centre proprietor Zeb Xavier, who paid $6,000 for his cameras and was happy to give homicide detectives footage of the hooded figures who shot dead Basil Bryan, 23.
“I've got a pretty good system, from what the police tell me.”
On Jan. 12, police announced an arrest in the city's first slaying of the year, that of Johnny Youkhana, 36, shot outside a Rexdale massage parlour while a video camera rolled.
And yesterday, police investigating a shooting on Highway 401 that left two people hurt were sifting through Ministry of Transportation highway footage.
On Toronto's transit system, security camera images were requested on 70 occasions by police last year, according to TTC chairman Adam Giambrone.
“Videos have assisted in many of our cases – easily half a dozen in the past couple of years,” said Staff Inspector Brian Raybould, who heads the homicide squad. “They've given us images, and people have come forward to identify those responsible.”
A case that drew much attention took place last March, when a camera outside a North York apartment block showed a gunman calmly walk up to a group of young men, pull out a pistol and begin firing.
Six people were hit, one fatally, and the footage was so graphic – even the muzzle flashes were discernible – that police fielded numerous complaints.
But within 48 hours, two people had been charged with murder.
Using video footage to solve crimes, however, is only half the story. The other component is deterrence.
Last year Toronto police launched a six-month pilot project that placed cameras in a string of high-crime areas in different neighbourhoods. The figures are is still being evaluated, and for now the only police cameras up and running are in the downtown Entertainment District, where Staff Sergeant Kevin Suddes of 52 Division hopes they stay.
“It's all good stuff,” he said. “We haven't had as many shootings, and I think the cameras are an excellent deterrent in that regard.”
Unsurprisingly, the security business lauds the benefits of cameras.
“I deal with a lot of police and the first thing they go for [after an incident] is surveillance,” said Sean O'Leary, president of Toronto-based SafeTech Alarm Systems, whose clients include FedEx, Pizza Pizza and Home Depot.
“They'll approach all business owners to see who has cameras.”
Wherever they are, what's common to most video-camera systems is that, unless there's reason to do so, there's little monitoring of what they record.
Ten months ago, the TTC got the green light from the province's privacy commission for a $20-million expansion of its video-surveillance network to install cameras on every bus and streetcar in the city, and at all subway platforms and entrances.
Adding the estimated 10,000 extra cameras would not violate privacy standards, Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian concluded, dismissing a complaint from British-based Privacy International, an advocacy group that has launched similar actions in dozens of countries.
But Ms. Cavoukian tempered her go-ahead with recommendations to ensure the information is not misused.
Among them was that, in line with police procedures, the TTC must delete videotape within a maximum of three days – 72 hours for subway data, 15 for footage from buses – unless needed for a criminal investigation. Previous guidelines permitted a seven-day maximum.
Most of that task has been completed, Mr. Giambrone said yesterday, with roughly 10,000 cameras observing the 1.6 million people who ride the system each day, and rarely is the footage retained for longer than 48 hours unless police ask for it.
