By Jennifer SmithStaff reporter Aug 01 2007 http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Kelowna RCMP are no longer automatically entitled to information on customers who deal with pawn shops. A landmark B.C. Supreme Court ruling found a New Westminister bylaw forcing pawn shops to forward personal information on their customers to police is unconstitutional after a jewelry store in that city decided to push the issue on the basis that it was a breach of their customer’s privacy. The ruling came down last week and by this week local pawn shop owner Martin Strasser put the matter to Kelowna RCMP and the City of Kelowna insisting the local bylaw requirements be adjusted in line with the ruling. “If a police officer wants to get information about you, he would need to get a warrant. Yet, because these people frequent our store, they have no rights,” he said.
Strasser is in frequent contact with the New Westminister pawn broker who raised the issue and has pushed the issue with local law enforcement on a number of occasions. Today, he says he’s pleased with the ruling and has been informed by police that he no longer needs to automatically send the identification information he collects on to the detachment. But he wants to know where the information he’s already sent went to. “I want to see if they are prepared to delete their back- log of lists,” said Strasser, noting the bylaw effectively discriminates against the poor for being poor. When a pawn shop or second-hand dealer automatically hands over the identity of its customers, it effectively hands police a list of potential suspects, reversing the innocent until proven guilty principle behind Canadian law, he argues. Anyone whose name shows up as a frequent customer may look suspicious to police, regardless of whether or not the person has ever been linked to goods associated with a crime. “The privacy violation is massive for an incredibly small return,” said Strasser. “I think the seizure rate is something like one article per thousand and it just doesn’t justify breaching the privacy of literally thousands of people to recover one item.”
He will continue forwarding the identification information on the goods he brings in to police—things like serial numbers, engravings and distinctive markings—and says he must also collect personal information on his clients and keep it on file in case the markings given to police reveal the goods are stolen. But from now on, if the goods are stolen, police are going to need to get a warrant to get the pawn shop to hand over those records. RCMP Const. Julie Rattee confirmed the detachment’s pawn shop liaison has been in touch with local stores to let them know RCMP will comply with the court ruling immediately, regardless of where the City of Kelowna’s own bylaw stands.
Mayor Sharon Shepherd said she was not prepared to comment on the matter from the city’s point of view as the issue is currently with the city’s legal counsel. The local bylaw was enacted in 1999. In June 2004 Strasser told the Capital News it initially offered some legitimacy to the industry, but he and fellow industry insiders became alarmed when one of his customers was phoned by police while on a fishing trip on the basis of the information. “This is not going to make us a dime. There’s no move in this for any kind of self-interest,” he said. “We’re all fully computerized. Whether I send in a driver’s licence or not is just a toggle in my program, so this isn’t like it’s anything beneficial to me. I just didn’t think it was right.” Strasser doubts the information sharing has cost him any customers. When you’re at the point you’re selling DVDs for money, privacy concerns just don’t make much difference, he said.
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http://www.vernon.ca/bylaws/4878_second_handdealers_consolidated.pdf
Above link is Vernon's bylaw which seems to have the same requirements for information recorded and transmitted to local RCMP
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