Pubdate: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON) Copyright: 2010 Sun Media Contact: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx Website: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676 Author: Peter Downs Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) NRP DEFENDS ITS DRUG-RAID SIGNS Signs used by Niagara Regional Police to alert the public when it's conducting marijuana grow-op raids are unlike ones that landed police in another Ontario city in hot water with the provincial privacy commissioner, the service's deputy chief says. Cornwall's police department came under fire last year after it began a controversial practice of posting signs on the lawns of homes that had been searched for illegal drugs. The large signs carried the notice, "Drug Search Warrant Executed At ," giving investigators space to fill in the street address. But shortly after the first sign - about the size of a standard real estate sign - was planted in front of a small Cornwall apartment complex last January, complaints began rolling in from civil liberty advocates. The office of Ontario Privacy Commission Ann Cavoukian launched an investigation and concluded in October that the signs breach privacy laws. Investigator Mark Ratner ruled the signs provide personal information by listing addresses where police executed search warrants. The commission ordered the police service to stop posting the drug-search signs. Niagara Regional Police recently began posting signs with similar bulletins on one of its vehicles to let people know when it's raiding marijuana growing operations. The NRP has been using the approach since the fall when it bought a large van to transport officers and equipment to pot-growing busts. Four large magnets - about the same size as a real estate sign - can be attached to the van as mobile public service announcements. The signs carry two different messages in big, black letters: "Marijuana Grow-Op Raid," and "Police Raid in Progress." Deputy Chief Joe Matthews said there is an important distinction between signs placed on a vehicle and signs stuck in the ground in front of a property, bearing an address. "It's not meant in any way to comment on the residents of the home, just to provide the public with an understanding of what the police activity is," he said Friday. The signs are not an attempt to prejudge or "brand" anyone as being involved in criminal activity who may live at a residence subject to a police grow-op raid, Matthews said. "Obviously, people are innocent until they are proven guilty and are taken in due course through the judicial process," he said. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which lodged the complaint against Cornwall police that led to the privacy commission investigation, acknowledged there are differences between the signs used by the two services. "There's certainly some distinctions between them, but I think some of our concerns would still be relevant," said Graeme Norton, the association's public-safety project director. The association believes police departments can enter "dangerous" territory when they take deliberate steps to publicize drug raids instead of simply making the information public. The signs can send out a message that a particular residence houses a grow-op, regardless of what the police investigation actually finds and whether any resulting charges are proven in court, Norton said. "There's not necessarily going to be a lot of followup to that, and will lead community members to make their own decisions and reach their own conclusions about what might have been happening there. In that type of scenario, imaginations could conceivably run wild," he said. Cornwall police haven't used any of its drug-search signs since the privacy commission ruling. But Chief Dan Parkinson hasn't changed his mind about the legality of the signs or their merit. "Some people called it the Scarlet Letter approach and public shaming, well, it wasn't about that at all," he said. Parkinson said he initiated the sign program in response to a push from the public for police to increase its presence in the battle against drug problems that proliferate the city. "We wouldn't have done this arbitrarily or for any other reason but to respond to what the community was telling us they wanted us to do," he said. Niagara police hope the signs draw attention to their efforts to dismantle grow-ops and lead to assistance from the public, Matthews said. "If the public sees that the police are taking action, it increases in their consciousness and maybe assists us in getting information more readily from them in the future when they see things that might be suspicious," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D