Westlock RCMP is waiting to see results from an Edmonton-based pilot project to install ID scanners at some liquor stores as a theft-preventative mechanism, but at least one local store owner is worried about privacy and cost of such an initiative.
At a Jan. 20 press conference, liquor distributor Alcanna Inc. announced a partnership with PatronScan and Edmonton Police Service to install scanners in some of its stores that will only allow patrons access inside the store once a form of ID has been scanned. Alberta justice minister Doug Schweitzer also announced the formation of a working group to study how to combat the public safety threat posed by liquor store robberies and thefts at the same press conference.
Wendy Berry, the owner of the Westlock Liquor Store, voiced mainly privacy concerns, but also took issue with the potential cost. For her, logging people’s whereabouts is not exactly ideal.
“If all the stores in town did it, then in a small-town people get offended … You’re almost persecuting the good people,” she said.
Berry’s store had an armed robbery May 29, 2019 that targeted the cash register. The rest have been regular cases of shoplifting and some break and enters after hours. Most recently, someone broke into the establishment two days prior to the Jan. 22 interview.
“In Westlock, it’s not just the liquor stores, it's everywhere in town … A lot of them are doing the crimes for money for drugs and that drug addiction is not going to go away,” said Berry.
Berry also pointed out to the difference in foot traffic between a city liquor store and a rural one, saying it might be cost effective to install ID scanners for Alcanna-type stores, but there aren’t enough people moving through the ones in small towns to keep the business going, let alone justify the cost for the equipment.
“I’m going to do some checking and see, even talk to some of the liquor stores that have it installed and if it’s making a difference, customer response too. Unless everybody in town gets it, I don’t want to scan. We don’t want to be pushed into that situation,” she said.
In the meantime, she says that criminals keep learning and every measure she takes, someone will find a way to go around it.
“That’s probably what will happen to the scanning thing.”
According to EPS Const. Robyn Wilson, the number of calls for service for liquor stores in Edmonton jumped to 9,600 in 2019 from just over 2,700 in 2018, including robbery where the threat or use of violence are involved.
Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird said the situation is different in this area, where thefts from liquor stores are mostly break-ins with the occasional shoplifter, but not as brazen as those in the city.
“Somebody walks in and takes a bottle and leaves the store … It’s like the hardware store, where somebody will take a saw or something. We’re not seeing people coming in and stealing a half dozen bottles.”
The main concern is public safety of both of patrons and staff, said Wilson.
During the press conference, the chair of the new working group, Leduc-Beaumont MLA Brad Rutherford, added that for some employees, it’s “repeat victimization.”
Wilson also clarified that responding to the calls, without even making arrests, is a significant strain on police resources: “It takes about an hour-and-a-half of an officer’s time to complete these investigations. It’s going into the millions of dollars annually for us.”
The ID scanners were classified as a “minor inconvenience to the public” during the press conference, when Rutherford said he hoped people would understand they were a “balance between service and safety.”
The data collected by PatronScan will stay in the system for 90 days.
“It’s not accessed unless there’s a crime,” said Alcanna CEO James Burns, who also added that PatronScan had been working with privacy offices in the province and across North America to ensure compliance with laws.
Alberta's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner announced shortly after the press conference that it will launch an investigation into the use of ID scanning technology since it wasn’t made aware of the pilot project ahead of its release.
OIPC released a statement Jan. 23 clarifying that they had been informed about it by the media.
As reported in the Edmonton Journal Jan. 22, OIPC communications manager Scott Sibbald said that “we have at no point been consulted on this pilot project announced by Alcanna and PatronScan … The assertions by the companies that the identification scanning system used in liquor stores complies with privacy laws in Alberta are misleading.”
Since then, OIPC has announced an official investigation into the use of ID scanner technology.
To date, scanners have been installed at three stores and there are plans for a fourth.
The Westlock detachment is waiting to see how the pilot works in the city, but Baird believes it will be useful for preventing theft and for catching perpetrators after the fact and might help lower the amount of police resources currently used for shoplifting investigations.
Baird said he already knows of a store in the Smoky Lake area that doesn’t allow access inside – customers instead order through a window and have the liquor brought to them.
“On the surface, (ID scanning) sounds like a good idea.”
Currently, there is no end point for the liquor store theft working group to report with findings or recommendations, but Rutherford says they will monitor this particular pilot.
“Time will tell if it will be looked at as potentially mandatory,” said Rutherford.
