City shirking backyard camera privacy concerns, London, Ont. man says | CBC News

Frustrated with the response from city officials, David Johnstone says he won’t give up his push to get bylaw officers or police to stop London, Ont. homeowners from using security cameras that peer into adjacent private property, including back yards. 

“City council doesn’t seem to want to deal with this issue, which is pretty disappointing,” he said. 

Since last summer, Johnstone has been raising concerns about what he says is a serious privacy issue, one he says could be easily addressed with either new bylaws or ones already on the books.

Johnstone wrote to London city council concerned about a neighbour’s security camera positioned under the floor roofline of a second-storey home. The camera captures the neighbour’s backyard but its field of view also includes much of his back yard, including a pool and outdoor seating area. The neighbour set up the camera after Johnstone and the neighbour got into a dispute over a fence. 

The fence dispute has since been settled and the neighbour has moved away, but the camera is still in place. 

Johnstone wrote a letter to the city asking them to draft a new bylaw to “protect individuals from being video recorded in the privacy of their own private residential backyards.”

The matter was referred to city staff, who came back with this report presented at the April 20 meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee (CAPS). The report points to a bylaw enacted back in 2002 to prevent “excessive fortifications” on buildings used for organized crime. But that bylaw also includes an exemption that says security cameras on private homes don’t amount to an excessive fortification.

The report says city bylaw enforcement officers stopped taking complaints about disputes between neighbours over security cameras in 2017 after consulting with police. City staff now consider such disputes a civil matter, the report says.

The report also says any bylaw barring security cameras from pointing into neighbours’ yards would be difficult to enforce because: 

• Bylaw officers can’t demand access to a dwelling to see what a private camera does or doesn’t capture and
• It’s unlikely they’d get a search warrant for what amounts to a bylaw infraction.
• Even if a homeowner did show bylaw enforcement officers what the camera sees, the angle could be altered at any time.

The report says if there’s a suggestion the camera is being used for a crime, such as voyeurism or filming children, then they will hand the complaint over to police.

Councillors on CAPS voted 6-0 to receive the report for information, but take not further action. Councillors Shawn Lewis and Jesse Helmer both said in the meeting the matter is likely to come before council again. The committee decision will be up for final approval at the next council meeting.

If I can’t enjoy my own backyard away from a camera, then where can I enjoy myself?– David Johnstone

To Johnstone, the response from city staff and politicians amounts to side-stepping a serious privacy concern. 

He says if they had the will, council and staff could establish a process whereby homeowners have to notify their neighbours about security cameras that peer into adjacent yards. 

He also feels the existing fortifications bylaw could be interpreted to stop cameras from capturing images of adjacent properties. He says a bylaw that would prevent cameras from being placed high off the ground would be a good start. 

“If they can set limits on the heights of fences, why not on the locations of cameras?” he said. 

Johnstone said the issue is too important to simply do nothing about as security cameras become cheaper and more prevalent in both private and public spaces. He argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of backyard privacy, with people spending more time than ever at home. 

Johnstone plans to raise the issue with other levels of government. 

“We need a place away from cameras,” he said. “If I can’t enjoy my own backyard away from a camera, then where can I enjoy myself?”