Privacy commissioner orders Edmonton pawnshop data base destroyed
EDMONTON/630 CHED
There’s been a major change in the way Edmonton police works with pawn shops.
In a ruling released this afternoon, the Information and Privacy Commissioner has ordered the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Police Service to stop the collection of information from Pawnshops and Second Hand Stores.
City council in 2005, required pawnshops and second hand stores to upload information collected by clients to a database maintained by a private company under contract with the City of Edmonton.
That immediately stops, and Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work has also ordered that the data base be destroyed.
Mayor Stephen Mandel says the city will go along with the ruling …
“What ever we’ve been obligated to do we’ll do. Our administration will give us a report back on the ramifications are, but at this point in time I’ve heard there’s been a decision that came down and we’ll have to abide by those decisions.”
It’s a big hit in ward three, where Councilor Ed Gibbons can’t believe there’s something wrong with collecting info on a computer …
“So we’ll be going back to manual? That’s a pre-historic era. My that’s absolutely unreal”
The city has fifty days to consider an appeal.
City manager Al Maurer says the city will use that time to “correct the actions and we’ll do that”. (sj, ccg)