Cameras could help police identify killers; Politicians call for more electronic eyes to combat gang violence in downtown core
Police are scouring images from as many as 30 surveillance cameras in the hope they will reveal the two gunmen who killed two men outside the Gotham steakhouse in downtown Vancouver.
"Investigators are pouring over surveillance cameras from outside the restaurant and from many other cameras in the nearby downtown area," police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning said yesterday.
Ricardo Francis Scarpino, 37, and an unidentified man were shot to death in front of the restaurant Saturday night.
Police have not released a description of the two suspects, because of different descriptions given by the large number of witnesses, said Fanning.
One man inside the restaurant dropped a handgun as police detained patrons.
Lawrence Brinley Wilson, 47, of Vancouver, appeared in court yesterday, charged with possession of a restricted firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, unauthorized possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance.
Meanwhile, a renewed call to install more closed-circuit cameras was sounded by area politicians.
"There is definitely a place for them and that will be discussed in the future," said Mayor Sam Sullivan, adding that he felt they did not prevent crime.
"They are very effective at helping to prove crimes, and to follow up on providing evidence on crimes," he said.
Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry says surveillance cameras in downtown public spaces should be part of a multi-pronged effort against violent crime.
"It couldn't hurt to have [cameras]," Fry said yesterday. "I just am always very leery of that silver-bullet thing -- the one thing we can do that will stop the problem."
Fry argues for more police in the urban core, better lighting and a co-operative process between police, citizens, government officials and business people to tackle the problem of violence.
At a national level, government needs to take a hard line with U.S. officials about the guns that are coming across the border, Fry said.
And Canada needs to look at its immigration policies, she added.
"Do we have people coming in illegally, who are running drugs?"
Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt says cameras represent "another tool" in the battle against violence downtown.
"Those individuals who are packing pistols and shooting people, or threatening to shoot people -- we need to do everything we can to catch them," Mayencourt said.
"We need to . . . get them off the street."
But Micheal Vonn, policy director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, says the cameras don't work.
"Video surveillance does not stop crime," Vonn said.
"We know this from the U.K., which is the most surveilled country in the world. Their billions of dollars in investment in video surveillance has not impacted their crime rate one iota, nor has it helped them solve more crimes."
Vancouver Board of Trade chief economist Bernie Magnan points out that surveillance cameras were instrumental in identifying the perpetrators of London's 2005 subway bombings.
Such devices intrude on privacy and must be used only for criminal investigations, Magnan says.
B.C. Solicitor-General John Les insists the police are doing a good job, even though no arrests have been made in the recent shooting or any of the 19 gang-related slayings late last year.
"Organized criminals know that police are out there looking at them," said Les, citing the fact no one was killed in December as evidence of the effectiveness of the new police anti-gang unit.
