Edmonton Police ‘Screw Up’ and Infringe Upon Privacy Rights of Criminals

Pic Courtesy from www.ourhometown.ca/images/photos/Edmonton_Police_L.jpg

The Edmonton Police Services (EPS) launched a program called 2012 Project Operation Warrant Execution (OWE). Project OWE was launched in an effort to clear more than 16,000 outstanding warrants in the Edmonton area. It was implemented and executed in two stages.

Stage 1 which ran from March 5‐31, 2012,involved trying to get individuals to come forward and address their outstanding warrants. Edmonton police issued this out through in the media and on its website to anyone with an outstanding warrant to come forward and deal with it by April 2 “or risk the possibility of having their names and faces advertised publicly and police visiting their home and workplace.”

Stage 2 began April 2nd,when the EPS publicly disclosed information about individuals with outstanding warrants. The media subsequently reported that the EPS had published information that identified a young offender and that the publication of the young offender’s identity without a court order would constitute a violation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

This got the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, Jill Clayton to investigate the EPS. According to the Canadian Press the EPS is “in contravention of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act [FOIP Act] because police did not take precautions to limit the information it was releasing.”

“My investigation found that the EPS did not make reasonable security arrangements to protect personal information as required under section 38 of the FOIP Act when it implemented Project OWE in 2012″, said Veronica Chodak the Senior Information and Privacy Manager in her investigation report. She also said, “My investigation also found that the EPS had authority to disclose some, but not all, of the personal information in Project OWE. I also found that the EPS did not limit the extent of personal information disclosed to what was necessary to carry out its purposes in a reasonable manner.”

The police ads, under the headline “Do You Know These People?” included a photo and name. The police department website provided names, ages, photos, height and weight. The campaign also disclosed information about individuals who no longer had outstanding warrants and whose cases were labelled “solved.”~ SOURCE

The EPS is facing a $40,000 civil law suit launched on behalf of the young offender whose information was mistakenly released by Project OWE.

Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht says his department will from now on require a privacy impact assessment for new major projects involving the public disclosure of personal information, as ordered by the Privacy Commissioner. According to the chief warrant project did successfully clear 5,000 warrants from the system, but admits errors were made.