The training that drone operators receive about privacy is one page long, and says police will remove and try to avoid capturing personal information unrelated to the flight’s objective.

It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges.

Lindsey Ellefson is Lifehacker’s Features Editor. She currently covers study and productivity hacks, as well as household and digital decluttering, and oversees the freelancers on the sex and relationships beat. She spent most of her pre-Lifehacker career covering media and politics for outlets like Us Weekly, CNN, The Daily Dot, Mashable, Glamour, and InStyle. In recent years, her freelancing has focused on drug use and the overdose crisis, with pieces appearing in Vanity Fair, WIRED, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and more. Her story for BuzzFeed News won the 2022 American Journalism Online award for Best Debunking of Fake News.

Once your half hour has elapsed, rinse the head and dust pan under running water to get the soap out, then shake them before reattaching the head to the handle. Hang or prop it upside down to dry it completely.

Karen Louise Smith, an assistant professor at Brock University in St. Catharines who researches privacy, also said that in the case of a protest near a neighbourhood, she wonders how police could effectively use drones without encroaching on the privacy of bystanders and peering “into their homes.”

When identifying people, Bharaj said, the HPS uses techniques similar to any other digital imagery, like security camera footage.

Bestbroom

Last summer, Axon Enterprise, a U.S.-based company formerly known as Taser International, announced it had started developing a drone armed with a Taser as part of a plan to stop mass shootings.

Cleaning Brush

3. Throw your dust pan in there, too, if you have one, and use a cleaning brush to scrub in its corners before leaving it to soak with the head. Don’t forget to scrub at the head with the cleaning brush a bit, too. (And, eventually, wash the cleaning brush in a similar manner.)

The training, along with the PIA, also says all flight information and other details about drone use would be available on the HPS’s website. An HPS webpage on drones appeared in late March, after questions from CBC, with basic information about the drone program, but there was nothing about specific flights.

Hamilton police began using drones in 2021, but the HPS has released little information about their use or the guidelines for operating them.

“Something should have been stated in here that these drones, under no circumstances whatsoever, will be used for the purposes of arming them and deploying them as weaponry.”

“It is the police who get to decide when and how a protest turns into a riot and allows the police to respond in ways they see fit,” Schneider said, adding he believes the PIA doesn’t say enough about charter rights.

You have to clean your broom. Yes, your broom is for cleaning, but even things that are for cleaning need to be cleaned themselves. You shouldn’t be pushing a dirty tool around on the floor, expecting it not to impede your quest to stop the floor from being dirty. Clean brooms are more effective, so it’s worth it to take some time to spruce yours up—especially if it’s been a while (or ever) since you’ve done so. Here’s what you need to do.

Privacy researchers interviewed by CBC Hamilton say the PIA doesn’t address using controversial technology like facial recognition to analyze drone images or arming the drones — which at least one U.S. tech firm has recently explored — and that gap leaves room to explore those possibilities.

Hamilton police tweeted how it was using drones to monitor protesters during Trudeau’s visit to the city in late January.

Of those, 20 drone deployments were listed as collision reconstruction, six were filed under search and rescue, and 17 were filed under “other,” defined as anything besides collision reconstruction, and search and rescue.

How tocleanplasticbroombristles

While vastly different events and incidents, they have one thing in common: A drone operated by the Hamilton Police Service (HPS) was buzzing around in the sky above and watching.

The police service has alerted the public via Twitter about deploying drones at least 17 times since Dec. 12, 2021, according to CBC Hamilton’s tracking of the tweets, despite using drones 43 times in one year.

Schneider said police in the U.S. used drones to surveil protests after the high-profile murder of George Floyd, who was killed in May 2020 by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Flight logs obtained by CBC Hamilton show the HPS deployed drones 43 times from January 2022 to the end of January 2023.

In early 2022, Const. Krista-Lee Ernst, an HPS media relations officer, said in an email that when the police service used drones at the Grey Cup and the NHL Heritage Classic at Tim Hortons Field in March, it was to have a “bird’s-eye view” of the stadium for when officers have to control traffic at the start and end of the games. Drones were not used to identify people, she added.

The company immediately faced backlash, and three days after announcing its plans, Axon said it was “pausing” the project.

She and all the privacy interests interviewed said drones may have a chilling effect on protests and people standing up to the police service because they may feel they’re being watched.

McPhail said the HPS should have conducted a public consultation before it started using drones, particularly with marginalized communities.

“This ‘other’ category raises some concerns. It could just be anything,” said Natasha Tusikov, a former analyst with Criminal Intelligence Service Canada and researcher with the RCMP. “I’d like to see some greater specificity.”

How tocleanabroom withvinegar

In addition to her journalism, Lindsey is a student at the NYU School of Global Public Health, where she is working toward her Master of Public Health and conducting research on media bias in reporting on substance use with the Opioid Policy Institute’s Reporting on Addiction initiative. She is also a Schwinn-certified spin class teacher. She won a 2023 Dunkin’ Donuts contest that earned her a year of free coffee. Lindsey lives in New York, NY.

Through a Freedom of Information request, CBC Hamilton obtained the HPS’s privacy impact assessment (PIA) on drones. The document is needed to show how the technology may impact people’s privacy and ensure the service is in compliance with privacy laws.

Lindsey Ellefson is Lifehacker’s Features Editor. She currently covers study and productivity hacks, as well as household and digital decluttering, and oversees the freelancers on the sex and relationships beat. She spent most of her pre-Lifehacker career covering media and politics for outlets like Us Weekly, CNN, The Daily Dot, Mashable, Glamour, and InStyle. In recent years, her freelancing has focused on drug use and the overdose crisis, with pieces appearing in Vanity Fair, WIRED, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and more. Her story for BuzzFeed News won the 2022 American Journalism Online award for Best Debunking of Fake News.In addition to her journalism, Lindsey is a student at the NYU School of Global Public Health, where she is working toward her Master of Public Health and conducting research on media bias in reporting on substance use with the Opioid Policy Institute’s Reporting on Addiction initiative. She is also a Schwinn-certified spin class teacher. She won a 2023 Dunkin’ Donuts contest that earned her a year of free coffee. Lindsey lives in New York, NY.

“Saying nothing about it leaves it open,” Schneider said, pointing to how Hamilton police tested a controversial facial recognition software in 2020.

Cleaning brooms and brushes

Most flights in 2022 and January 2023 lasted a few minutes or a few hours, but one flight went on for almost nine hours.

The technology is increasingly being employed by police services across Canada, including in Charlottetown, Fredericton, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

BroomStick

While the flight logs don’t specify locations or the objective of missions categorized as “other,” police tweets indicate drones were used in a range of events, including:

1. Remove any visible debris, like big chunks of dust or wads of hair, by hand. In the photo above, you see my broom head before and after completing this step. My broom was recently used to clean some vents in the garage, so the dirt was all linty and easy to remove manually, but if you have a lot of hair or smaller debris on yours, use an old, wide-toothed comb.

First of all, your broom more than likely screws apart, revealing two distinct parts: A bristly head and a long handle. Both of these are dirty, but the head makes your floors dirtier and the handle does the same to your hands. Let’s start with how to clean the head, per home cleaning company Maids by Trade:

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Christopher Schneider, a sociology professor at Manitoba’s Brandon University whose research examines policing and technology, said introducing drones is a sign of the militarization of policing.

In 2020, the HPS’s police chief at the time, Eric Girt, told the police services board that the service should get drones to enhance officers’ response to “large-scale events” such as McMaster’s Fake Homecoming, protests and demonstrations at city hall, and Supercrawl, the annual downtown music and arts street festival.

2. Soak the broom head in warm, soapy water for about 30 minutes. I used dish soap, but didn’t have a bucket. Luckily, my time at Lifehacker has trained me to see my bathtub as an extra-large cleaning bucket, so I just plopped it in there like I would my oven racks. Maids by Trade is clear that it doesn’t matter if your bristle material is natural or synthetic; both can be cleaned with a long soak.

Once it’s dry, you should think about how to keep your broom tidy. Storing your broom correctly is important for keeping it clean. If you can, hang it using a designated holder so the bristles don’t touch the floor when it’s not in use. Don’t store it in your dark closet until it’s totally dry after its bath, either; you don’t want mold or mildew to accumulate in the bristles.

Dirtybroom

For example, records related to a crash could be kept for over five years. Any records unnecessary for investigations or training will be deleted, according to the PIA.

A car crash in rural Hamilton. A search for a missing elderly woman. The 2021 CFL Grey Cup. A protest during a visit from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Yes, there is the argument that we need some kind of effective law enforcement operation. What we also need in a democracy is accountability.”

The flight logs also showed the HPS used drones more in January 2023 than in any other month over the previous year, with eight deployments. Seven of those were categorized as “other.”

While your broom head is soaking, you have some time to clean the handle, which you should disinfect. I disinfected mine with Lysol, but some of the garage-acquired grime wasn’t coming off, so I dipped a paper towel into the sudsy bath water to loosen it before disinfecting again. Broom handles are actually high-touch surfaces and you really only interact with them when you’re cleaning up household messes, so they can get really germy. While you only need to clean the head every three months or so, you should wipe down the handle after every use.

Broomand Dustpan

“It’s pretty short,” Tusikov, an assistant professor in York University’s criminology department, said of the privacy portion of the training.

In a March 15 email, Const. Indy Bharaj, media relations officer with the HPS, wrote drones enhance public safety, adding that police and fire services around the world use the technology.

Police across Canada are increasingly using drones. In Hamilton, there are privacy ‘red flags,’ and new documents reveal when, how and why this aerial technology is used

“It all sounds very orderly, and considerate and thought through, but there are red flags,” said Brenda McPhail, CCLA’s director of the privacy, technology and surveillance program.

Lifehacker has been a go-to source of tech help and life advice since 2005. Our mission is to offer reliable tech help and credible, practical, science-based life advice to help you live better.

Rick Smith, Axon’s chief executive officer and founder, said at the time that using “remotely operated non-lethal drones capable of incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds” would be “a more effective, immediate, humane and ethical option to protect innocent people.”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and three privacy experts reviewed the HPS drone PIA. They praised police for doing the assessment, but also said it has gaps.

The drone program also uses software to “stitch” images together to create 3D renderings of scenes, similar to Google Street View.

The Canadian government adopted rules in 2019 that say drones must stay within a person’s eyesight, unless they get an exemption. The rules have faced some pushback from drone users and police.

They also show the HPS didn’t follow part of its own PIA for two years, by not adding a webpage to its site about the drone program. It did so recently, after receiving questions from CBC Hamilton about its absence.

Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6

Bharaj said the PIA provides exemptions for when the HPS doesn’t need to notify the public. They include “emergent situations” or when notifying people would jeopardize the investigation.

Schneider said another detail that isn’t mentioned in the PIA is if there’s a possibility for the drones to be armed with weapons.