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October 2, 2006
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to Use Epiphan Systems Technology

Ottawa Team Zooms in on Passengers at Airports Coast to Coast - Ottawa Citizen

Published: Monday, October 02, 2006

Author: Kim Bolan

Canadian airports have been outfitted with a state-of-art camera system allowing officials at an operations centre in Ottawa to zoom in on luggage or passengers as they are being screened across the country.

The high-tech equipment, considered the most sophisticated in the world, has provided another level of security in the new age of terrorist threats.

A network of more than 500 cameras at 25 airports, including the Ottawa Airport, has been installed at a cost of $ 1.8 million in the first phase of the project by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

Toronto's Pearson Airport had just received its cameras and Vancouver International has been up and running for months.

"Hopefully all of the airports that were scheduled in Phase 1 will be done by the end of this year," CATSA communications director Renee Fairweather said.

"We are just in the process of completing the deployment at all of our biggest airports."

The cameras are so powerful that they can zoom in on the writing on a boarding pass in Vancouver so that someone at the CATSA command centre here can read it.

The X-rays of suspicious items in carry-on bags at any of the airports in the system can be double-checked if necessary by fresh eyes in Ottawa.

"The capabilities of the camera make it such that we have a very sophisticated system in place," Ms. Fairweather said. "I can't tell you how many agencies and private industry have come to see our system."

Other countries have also toured the operations centre in downtown Ottawa -- a room of computers and television screens that looks like something out of a spy thriller.
Ms. Fairweather said officials from the Netherlands, Britain and China have been by and the Australians have also asked for a tour.

When White Rock, B.C., Hells Angels member Villy Roy Lynnerup tried to board a flight in Vancouver last April, allegedly with a loaded semi-automatic handgun in his carry-on luggage, screening staff quickly alerted authorities.

The whole incident was captured and recorded by the new camera system.

Ms. Fairweather said the camera system can be used as an active monitoring system or for its ability to replay tape if a concern arises.

"If it is ever used for any type of investigation, there is a proper protocol in place where the agencies would have to make a formal request to us," she said.

Airport security has been an increasingly prominent issue in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., after which CATSA was created as a Crown corporation.

While the primary function of the camera system is to increase security, it has also helped resolve passenger claims of theft during the screening process, Ms. Fairweather said.

"The video footage is used to verify and validate the facts that are being alleged," she said.

The cameras also recently captured the bizarre behaviour of a man who decided to take off his pants and go through screening at Victoria airport in his boxer shorts as the CATSA staff member carried on.

"The screening officer never flinched," Ms. Fairweather said. "Then I think the police showed up and had a little chat with him." But she stressed that the system is not designed to monitor individuals, but to make sure that all the proper screening procedures are being followed at Canada's airports.

"Our job is not to watch individual people, it is to watch the actual system and processes to make sure that everything is going according to what our mandate is, what the legislative requirements are."

At the control centre, various airport screening lines pop up on monitors, the images shifting every few minutes. If too much congestion is seen at one airport line, they will call an airport supervisor to deal with it, Ms. Fairweather said.

"If any one airport has a particularly long lineup or a congestion problem, they can actually call the regional manager and flag it with them," she said.

The operations centre also can follow up on specific information about threats if they are received.

"Let's say we get some information that suggests that Vancouver airport may be targeted, or there may be something there, our team has the ability to monitor all of the screening points at Vancouver for whatever period is required," she said.

The new system was installed after consulting with the federal privacy commission," Ms. Fairweather said,

"The project has run very smoothly," she said.

"We have got great systems in place and people should feel safe flying."

the vancouver sun

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