Businesses along busy Whyte Avenue are welcoming a proposal from Edmonton's police chief to once again install surveillance cameras on city streets in an attempt to deter crime.

"I think the businesses would support it," said Shirley Lowe, executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association.

Edmonton Chief Mike Boyd says street surveillance cameras are an important tool for police in many cities.
(CBC News)

"I think we've gotten to the point where there are so many people in Edmonton and on the streets of Edmonton that cameras would actually help, to some extent, to prevent crime, but certainly to prosecute it."

Edmonton Police Chief Mike Boyd said such cameras have become an important tool for police in other parts of the world.

"If there's technology that will help us make our city safer, our neighbourhoods safer, why aren't we using them?" he said in a year-end interview on Dec. 22.

Whyte Avenue's popular strip of bars, shops and restaurants was the site of a swarming in November that left a 20-year-old man dead. No arrests have been made.

Surveillance cameras were installed along Whyte Avenue under a pilot project in the summers of 2003 and 2004.

The cameras were controversial, with some residents and civil liberties groups objecting to their use. A complaint was filed with Alberta's privacy commissioner, who concluded that "placing surveillance cameras in public places is an extraordinary measure to be used only when the need for and the effectiveness of the cameras are clear."

In spring 2005, police dismantled the cameras after a report concluded there was no conclusive evidence that they reduced crime.

Many cities around the world have some form of surveillance camera system in place. Police in London went through hours of surveillance videos after the terrorist attacks on that city's transit system in 2005.

Time to revisit the issue: Boyd

Boyd, who took the helm of Edmonton's police force nearly a year ago, said it's time to revisit the idea.

"At one time it may have been an invasion of someone's personal privacy," he said.

"But I raise the question rhetorically: Is it an invasion of someone's privacy in 2006 and 2007? And does anyone out there in some of these areas have a reasonable expectation to privacy?"

He said the public will get a chance to comment.

New policing strategy on Whyte Avenue in the spring

While cameras are only a possibility at this stage, Boyd is guaranteeing a new policing strategy for Whyte Avenue in the spring. Officers will patrol the popular strip, along with gaming and liquor investigators and fire officials.

Boyd said they'll watch for excessive drinking and overcrowding and hopefully rid the area of troublemakers before violence breaks out.