Saskatoon police scrap scanners for newsrooms after privacy ruling

Saskatoon police scrap scanners for newsrooms The Saskatoon Police Service says it is working to find alternate measures to provide access to information

The Saskatoon Police Service says it is working to find alternate measures to provide access to information after removing media access to police scanner traffic.

“We do about 1,000 news releases a year, but we also are looking for other technologies, solutions to maybe allow media to see what’s going on without giving out some of that critical information that might breach privacy legislation,” Chief Troy Cooper told CTV News.

“It really doesn’t matter a lot what happens with it, it’s us that’s actually breaching the legislation by sharing that without authority.”

For years, newsrooms in the city have had access to police scanners, which meant they were able to hear when officers were dispatched, helping reporting cover emergencies, including crashes, stand-offs, and other incidents involving police.

That access came to an end last March when the Information and Privacy Commissioner Ron Kruzeniski’s interpretation of provincial legislation found allowing media outlets to access to police scanners could breach privacy laws, disclosing people’s personal information.

“If you have radio transmissions where police forces are giving out personal information and that others can hear it, that is basically a disclosure of people’s personal information,” Kruzeniski told CTV News.

A researcher with the University of Saskatchewan who studies policing in Canada said taking scanners out of newsrooms can pose a problem if police are making the call about what is newsworthy.

“If I was a police service, I’d be concerned about being downloaded those important press decisions of what is press-worthy and what is not,” Scott Thompson said.

Saskatoon lawyer Sean Sinclair is representing CTV News and other newsrooms in the province in an effort to have access restored for news media.

He said there is a large public interest in this access, giving the example of the scare in Saskatoon where envelopes of suspicious, and potentially dangerous, white powder were delivered to businesses.

“Because the media had access to the scanner, they were able to tell members of the public to stay off certain streets which were very dangerous.”

Police in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg are among the cities that have scrapped media access to scanners. On Aug. 6, Regina media will also lose access.

The Vancouver Police Department said one of the key reasons scanners were encrypted was for officer safety.

“Our last officer killed in the line of duty was shot during the execution of a search warrant by a suspect who was listening to police movements on a scanner,” VPD Cst. Steve Addison told CTV News in an e-mail.