A newly released tender from the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority has revealed that unobtrusive CCTV cameras could soon be installed in the Uniacke Square area, raising questions over the possible invasion of residents’ privacy.
Pillay mentioned how security-camera footage can end up online as a reason to be cautious.
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Differing opinions
The housing authority is run by the province’s department of community services. They say that they’ll only be using the cameras to monitor parking and ensure that residents are the only ones using dumpsters.
Lindell Smith, municipal councillor for Halifax Peninsula North — an area that includes Uniacke Square — told Global News that he had been contacted by some of his constituents about the tender. On Thursday, he issued a statement distancing himself and the Halifax Regional Municipality from the proposed tender.
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“I want to inform residents that this is a provincial initiative,” he wrote.
Smith and other community members on the HRM’s Safer Community Initiative have been hosting community engagement sessions in the area during the past five months.
“I can assure you that this plan is a community-focused initiative, and decisions will not be made without community engagement and response,” Smith wrote.
Vigliarolo stressed that the housing authority would not attempt to install cameras without informing and consulting with local residents. The tender was an attempt to judge the cost of monitoring the area and avoid using a security firm to monitor parking as they’ve done before.
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The proposed tender
The tender documents, released on Wednesday, indicate a plan to place eight closed-circuit television cameras, as well as their associated cables and mounting racks, throughout part of the Uniacke Square public housing unit.
“The purpose of this quote is to produce a safe, working CCTV system with eight camera locations at Uniacke Square,” reads the tender document. It specifies that the cameras must be a model of Interlogix cameras, which go for around $515 each online.
As part of the tender, possible bidders are scheduled to be given a tour of the area on May 10, 2017.
The tender comes after a series of fatal shootings in the Halifax area in November 2016.
Two men were killed during the stretch of shootings, one of whom, 58-year-old Terrance Patrick Izzard, was killed only meters away from one of the proposed camera locations.
— With files from Natasha Pace, Steve Silva, David Squires
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