Violent Crime… let’s talk CCTV
Chief Danny Smyth
The recent spike in violent crime has generated a lot of talk about what should be done. Media, for their part, sought opinions and discussion from a wide range of pundits. Inevitably the topic of a CCTV system was offered up as one way to deal with public safety – particularly in the downtown area. The fact is that the City of Winnipeg has invested in substantive CCTV systems over the past decade, including police, transit, and bylaw enforcement. The benefits of these systems are tangible, and I support their continued use, but not for the reasons you might think. CCTV systems on their own are not a particularly effective crime prevention tool. They are, however, a very effective tool to advance police investigations by helping police identify suspects involved in violent crimes.
Historically, most would acknowledge that the UK was the first western country to explore and build out a very expansive CCTV system in the 1990s that focused on public or open-street spaces. Many believe the killing of two-year-old James Bulger by two ten-year-old boys was the impetus for the CCTV initiative by the UK’s Home Office. Grainy video images were obtained showing Bulger being led away by the boys from a shopping center in the town of Bootle in 1993. Bulger’s mutilated body was discovered two days later on a railway track approximately four kilometres away. In the decade that followed, the UK invested billions in a network of millions of CCTV cameras. It is estimated that today there are more than 5 million CCTV cameras in the UK.
In Canada, various cities and municipalities began to explore CCTV systems in the late 1990s. In Winnipeg, the first CCTV proposal went before City Council in 1997 as part of the Downtown Safety Strategy. While the proposal was approved by Council, it recognized that a funding partnership with the Provincial government was necessary. The initiative was put on hold in 1999 with the changing of the Provincial government that did not see this as a priority.
In 2007 crime in the downtown area was a going concern. The WPS was tasked with planning a strategy for a new iteration of a CCTV system. The plan was brought before City Council in 2008 by Chief of Police Keith McCaskill. The CCTV component of the plan was led by Superintendent Dave Dalal (then a Sergeant assigned to the ODS Division) and Maureen Musgrove (an Analyst in ODS). The plan was brought before City Council in 2008 and approved to go forward as a pilot project beginning in 2009.
The pilot project in 2009 was scaled back considerably from the original 1997 vision. It focused on six specific sites, primarily in the downtown area, using ten cameras. The sites were selected based on the frequency of violent call types dispatched by police in those areas. They included calls like Assault, Assault with a Weapon, Robbery, and Shots Fired, to name a few of the criteria used to screen.
The lead-up to the pilot included a public survey, community consultation, research involving other public safety applications, and extensive consultation with the Manitoba Ombudsman regarding the application of cameras in public or open-street spaces. It was determined that the cameras would not be live monitored. Rather, a video would be recorded and accessible to police investigators through a controlled process. It was also determined that captured video would not be permanently stored. The recorded video would be preserved for two weeks to allow for investigative requests and then over-written if there were no investigative inquiries.
The principal objectives of the pilot project were:
1. To enhance public safety.
2. To assist in reducing the fear of crime.
3. To help prevent and deter crime and public disorder.
4. To help detect crime and gather evidence.
5. To assist the WPS to identify criminal activity and suspects.
6. To assist in efficient allocation and deployment of resources.
The pilot project ran for a year throughout most of 2009 and part of 2010. During the evaluation, the system held up well technically, and there were also no complaints from the community or the Ombudsman regarding privacy concerns. There were also no statistically significant results on the impact that the camera system had in preventing crime. There were 39 instances when police investigators accessed the system to advance criminal investigations.
Despite the modest results, City Council saw enough benefit to approve the integration of the CCTV system on a permanent basis in 2011. A little over $500 K had been invested in the system.
In the more than two decades since CCTV was established, we have learned a lot through research on the efficacy of these systems. An extensive review based on 40 years of evaluation research of CCTV systems by Piza, Welsh, Farrington, and Thomas in 2019 has found that CCTV is associated with a significant yet modest decrease in crime. The largest and most consistent effects of CCTV were observed in car parks. The analysis also demonstrated evidence of significant crime reductions within other settings, particularly residential areas. The research and review support the continued use of CCTV systems to the target vehicle and property crimes. The research does not support CCTV systems being deployed as stand-alone crime prevention measures.
Despite the fact that these systems do not in and of themselves prevent crime, they most certainly help police solve crimes. The UK video that captured the abduction of James Bulger helped police solve the mystery of his killing—and that is the point. Society expects the police to investigate crime and hold offenders to account in the Justice system. CCTV systems have contributed to the advancement of criminal investigations over and over to prove their value.
As far back as 1996, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the value of videotape evidence in the Nikolovski case:
The video camera, on the other hand, is never subject to stress. Through tumultuous events, it continues to record accurately and dispassionately all that comes before it. Although silent, it remains a constant, unbiased witness with instant and total recall of all that is observed. The trier of fact may review the evidence of this silent witness as often as desired. The tape may be stopped and studied at a critical juncture.
So long as the videotape is of good quality and gives a clear picture of events and the perpetrator, it may provide the best evidence of the identity of the perpetrator. It is relevant and admissible evidence that can by itself be cogent and convincing evidence on the issue of identity. Indeed, it may be the only evidence available.
In Winnipeg, major crime and homicide investigators routinely look for the existence of video footage when they investigate crimes. This includes both publicly and privately administered CCTV systems.
In speaking with Detective Sergeant Justin Parry in our Homicide Division, the evidence obtained during their video canvasses is immense and extremely important to the success of their investigations. The unit has one of the highest clearance rates in Canada.
A few completed investigations that highlight private/public CCTV video include the homicide of Cody Sleigh in July 2020, where an extensive video canvas led to the discovery of two assassins who had come to Winnipeg from British Columbia for the sole purpose of committing the murder. Over the week they were in Winnipeg and the surrounding area, homicide investigators were able to show they were altering their appearance with makeup in preparation for the homicide. The master video timeline for the incident was 432 pages. The vast amount of video collected and the support the homicide unit received from the public during this investigation no doubt contributed to the two accused deciding to plead guilty.
Another case involved the death of Oghenetega Ufuoma in November 2021. In this case, both the victim and the accused were transient individuals who were regularly using Transit Bus shelters in the Osborne Village and Downtown areas to seek shelter during the winter. Businesses and residents in the area assisted in an extensive video canvas with the result that Nevis Carter pled guilty to manslaughter.
John Ostamas was another individual who was responsible for killing three vulnerable individuals, Miles Monias, Stony Stanley Bushie and Donald Collins, in April 2015 in downtown Winnipeg. CCTV footage of Ostamas was circulated nationally, and he was identified within hours by a resident in Northern Ontario. Ostamas pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 75 years in 2016.
If you want to talk about violent crime, don’t forget that CCTV systems will play a role. It just isn’t a crime prevention role. To talk more about the crucial role CCTV plays in regard to crime prevention in downtown Winnipeg, here is Inspector Gord Spado.
Gord Spado, Inspector
Special Projects
Eyewitness testimony, both from independent witnesses as well as directly involved victims, is very important to the criminal proceedings. Having said that, eyewitness testimony is not infallible. People focus on particular details to the exclusion of others. Two different witnesses can describe the same suspect somewhat differently, including the colour of clothing, etc. In particular, the victim of a crime, particularly when a weapon is involved, will focus on the largest threat to their wellbeing and ignore other details that can be valuable.
Technology is a way to combat some of this uncertainty in witness accounts. Police have used video recordings for a very long time. However, these have traditionally been private businesses that have their own surveillance systems in place. Some systems have high-quality recordings that provide great images. With some systems, however, the quality of the recordings can sometimes create challenges due to low resolutions, old technology, etc. While still useful, these lesser-quality recordings can sometimes not provide a clear enough image of the suspect.
In 2008, the Winnipeg Police Service embarked on a pilot project for Public Space Closed Circuit Television (PSCCTV) cameras. Ten cameras were installed in high crime locations in 2009. As a result of the pilot, the cameras remained in place because they created an added value to policing in these locations. Several homicides and other street-level crimes were solved because of the existence of these cameras, and the Service continued to service these systems. One limitation of these cameras is that they only captured video in one direction and whether a suspect was captured on camera depends on the direction the camera lens was pointed.
In 2018, the City of Winnipeg and Winnipeg Police Service embarked on the Downtown Safety Strategy, and as a part of that strategy, City Council approved $150,000 to be used to upgrade and expand the PSCCTV program. This allowed the Service to expand the footprint of the system and leverage improved technology.
After testing several different cameras, the Axis P3719 camera was selected. This camera has 4 lenses in each unit, allowing a near 360-degree coverage. No longer will the success of a video capture be limited by the direction the camera is facing. This camera also allows higher resolution than the older technology, which will enhance the ability to identify suspects.
Starting in July 2022, installation of the new cameras is taking place, with the goal to have all 25 cameras installed by fall 2022. These cameras will replace the existing cameras and also provide significant coverage in downtown Winnipeg, predominantly focused on Portage Ave and Ellice Ave between Main Street and Colony Street. While these cameras don’t always capture the actual incident, they can be useful in locating suspects coming or going from the crime location. This, combined with witness/victim accounts, can help identify suspects.
While PSCCTV research shows that it has little deterrent value to violent crime, cameras increase the likelihood of solving these crimes. The reduced deterrent value on violent crime is due to the fact that these crimes are usually spur-of-the-moment events where the perpetrator is not considering their potential of apprehension. Other crimes, where the perpetrator is considering their ability to successfully get away with their crime, may be deterred by the existence of cameras. Regardless, there is value to having the cameras present. Apprehension of offenders for any crime is a success, and cameras enhance the ability of police to apprehend offenders.
Some people have asked if these cameras will be live monitored. This is not something that is part of the model for the WPS. There are several reasons for this. First of all, live monitoring would be very labour intensive and would require significant human resources to accommodate. Secondly, live monitoring would require the ability to have dedicated resources to respond to events observed on camera. With the current workload on front-line policing, that is not possible. That would mean that monitors would be watching crime occurring, often property crime that has a lower priority for a response, and video recording would be used afterwards.
Lastly, the impact on the public’s privacy would be impacted. Under the recording-only model, the footage would only be viewed if a request is made for an active investigation. The recordings are stored for about 2 weeks, at which time it is overwritten if not required for an active investigation.
More information on the program, including the privacy statement and locations, can be found at https://winnipeg.ca/police/crime_prevention/cctv.stm.