Drive by BC Hydro’s Gilmore substation in Burnaby, and you might notice a curious sight.
A fleet of mobile security cameras, high in the air on towable generator units, equipped with LED-light bars, microwave transponders, infrared detectors, and loud speakers.
Almost as curious? The fact they seemingly haven’t been deployed anywhere for weeks.
Sources tell Global News the cameras were brought in by the company to combat metal theft. But BC Hydro refuses to confirm what they were purchased for, or what they might be used for outside of metal theft.
While combating metal theft is an issue for many utility companies, those contacted by Global News were similarly reticent to discuss what technologies they use to deal with the issue.
“We have a number of technologies we use to combat theft, as well as investigative techniques. I’m not able to get into exactly what they are – we don’t want the thieves to know about them – but we are actively working to combat metal theft every day,” says Telus spokesperson Shawn Hall.
He says that metal theft has dropped significantly since the provincial government enacted legislation earlier this decade, forcing scrap-metal dealers to keep records on who they buy from. However, he says they continue to work with police on effective strategies.
“Metal theft continues to be an issue. Provincial legislation…had an immediate positive effect, really brought the number of incidents down, and that’s continued. We dropped from one-to-two incidents of theft per day to a few a month. We still continue to see some incidents, so someone’s still buying that stolen material,” says Hall.
“It seems like a victimless crime, but it’s not. When someone steal copper cables from Telus, they take our customers out of service, they cut them off of access not just from phone service generally, but also from 9-1-1, so really, they are putting our customers’ lives at risk.”
Comments