TRAFFIC CAMERAS LIKELY CAUGHT HIT-RUN DRIVER
But that doesn’t mean the police know who did it, so tips are still needed
In the immediate area where Andy Nevin was struck and left for dead last weekend, there are a handful of city traffic cameras.
There is a camera at Leitrim and Albion Roads, and there is a camera at Leitrim and Gilligan Road. The cameras, which operate continuously, are about 600 metres apart. As the suspect vehicle, a white Ford pickup, was travelling east, it was likely caught on two cameras, not just one, and possibly even a third, at Leitrim and Limebank Road.
So, surely, it is only a matter of checking the images around 5:45 a.m. on Sunday, identifying the vehicle, zooming in on the licence plate and making an arrest?
If only we lived in a CSI world. The main problem, dear Sherlock, with this theory: the cameras were not set up as crime-fighting tools or for surveillance by lawenforcement authorities. They were installed to monitor traffic flow and, as such, are deliberately operated to avoid individual identification. The images, at least on the Internet, are quite fuzzy. Have a look (traffic.ottawa.ca/map/index?lang=en_US ).
It will be cold comfort to Nevin’s family today, but the cameras are operated to protect personal privacy, even that of fleeing criminals. The issue is an important one, especially as the city’s network of cameras grows: now about 225, including those on provincial highways, and growing.
Should they be turned into a 24/7 spy-web? The city, certainly, is alive to the conundrum.
In 2001, there was concern that Ottawa police were using traffic cameras to monitor the chaotic situation that surrounded the G20 finance ministers’ meetings in Ottawa, which drew hundreds of protesters and resulted in widespread property damage.
In May of 2002, the city’s transportation committee came up with a new policy: the cameras were not to be used for police work except in emergencies and recordings would be handed over with a justifiable request.
Phil Landry, a manager of traffic services, said the first traffic camera was installed in 1997, at Baseline and Greenbank. He said they all pan, tilt and zoom but operators — for privacy reasons — are told not to zoom in on faces or a vehicle’s identifying features, like a licence plate.
The cameras — powerful enough to see a quarter on the ground — are pre-set to look in certain directions, depending on the time of day, said Landry, and many pan multiple intersections.
They are monitored at a control centre on Loretta Avenue. Some of the images are very clear “like watching TV,” while others are less so because of the mode of transmission. Operators can then adjust green and red-light sequences as they see problems with gridlock crop up.
“It’s a traffic management tool. We’re not out there to do surveillance on people. We actually have protocols (against that.)”
He estimated that police ask for traffic camera recordings two or three times a month. He wasn’t sure how much image enhancement can be done after the fact.
Hit-and-run cases can be difficult to solve, particularly in more remote areas and during quiet hours with few witnesses.
Consider the case of Michael Morlang, 30, who was struck and killed by a vehicle in August 2013 as he walked alone on Frank Kenny Road near Navan, just after 5 a.m. The driver did not stop. Police were able to determine that the vehicle was probably a dark red or burgundy General Motors product and even specified the model years.
Still, nearly two years later, no arrest has been made.
There is, too, the tragedy of Jessica Godin, only 18, who was found dead on Sept. 24, 2011, in a roadside ditch in the village of Fournier, about 80 kilometres east of Ottawa. Or the case of Robin Brunet, who died July 31, 1999, as she tried to cross Hwy. 31 in South Gloucester at about 2 a.m. to rejoin friends at a bar.
The cases are different, but families report living with the same tortured thought: if the driver had stopped, and medical aid sent quickly, would their loved one be alive?
Collecting debris from the scene, police have determined the vehicle that struck Nevin, 39, a landscaper and father of two, was likely a Ford F250 or F350, model year 2004 to 2006, and sustained some front-end damage.
Anyone with information is asked to call the collision investigation unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 2481. Anonymous tips can be submitted at Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).