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'If you know this suspect, touch here'

You are being watched. From street corners and roadsides, bank machines and satellites, video cameras record our every move. For police forces, photo radar, street surveillance, cruiser cams and tiny cameras have become efficient crime-fighting tools, gathering irrefutable proof of criminal activity and deterring would-be lawbreakers. For others, video surveillance is an uncomfortable erosion of civil liberties, the unblinking eyes of Big Brother.

Talk about fingering a suspect. Vancouver police are hoping the public will do just that, using a new computer system they're introducing to Lower Mainland malls and stores. Public terminals show video images from the recent Stanley Cup riot. Put your finger on a suspect's photograph, and you'll see them in action. Press a few more times, and you are invited to anonymously inform the police of the suspect's identity. 
• The infamous "Stanley Cup riot" broke out in downtown Vancouver on June 14, 1994, after the Vancouver Canucks lost the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final to the New York Rangers. Tens of thousands of hockey fans took to the streets, and violence erupted. More than 500 police officers armed with batons, shields and tear gas battled looters and rioters in downtown Vancouver for much of the night. The riot cost an estimated $1,156,365.

• Police videotape and media footage of the Vancouver rioters was widely broadcast, and later shown at interactive kiosks. More than 600 tips were received and 150 people were identified and charged. In a 2003 interview with the Vancouver Courier, Vancouver police Sgt. Rob Bosley said that although he had no statistics on those charged, many pleaded guilty for crimes committed that night.
• The maximum sentence for taking part in a riot is two years in prison.

• Similar riots had taken place in Montreal in 1993 after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.

• After an analysis of communications problems in Vancouver's response to the 1994 Stanley Cup riot, an emergency operations centre was established to improve the city's disaster response capability.

• Vancouver police used similar technology to identify nine suspects in the Nov. 7, 2002 riot that broke out when the rock group Guns 'n Roses cancelled a concert at GM Place. The police created a website featuring photos, collected from media videotapes, of 47 rioters. They received at least 100 "credible tips."
Medium: Television
Program: CBC Evening News
Broadcast Date: Dec. 12, 1994
Guest(s): Anne Drennan, Damond Tschritter
Reporter: Carol Thorbes
Duration: 2:14

Last updated: February 7, 2012

Page consulted on August 21, 2012

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