22-05-2025
Use of traffic patrol drones by Kingston Police unconstitutional, group says
The Canadian Constitution Foundation and Kingston Police are at odds after the force recently used drones to combat distracted drivers.
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On May 7, 2025, Kingston Police held a distracted driving blitz in three locations in Kingston.
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Those locations included Division Street at John Counter Boulevard, Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard at John Counter Boulevard, and Hwy. 15 at Gore Road.
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Police said following the blitz that its traffic safety unit was given permission from NAV Canada to operate its DJI Matrice 300 drone in the above areas 'for the purpose of roadway enforcement.'
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According to a news release from Kingston Police 'the drone operator would use the zoom camera to record video while looking for cellphone use by drivers at these intersections. Once observed, details and directions of the vehicles and drivers were given over the radio to nearby waiting officers in police cruisers, where they would make an immediate stop and consequently issue an offence notice.'
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A first-time ticket for using your cellphone while driving comes with a minimum $615 fine, three demerit points, a three-day driver's licence suspension, a Service Ontario reinstatement fee of $281 and could have consequences on insurance premiums.
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According to the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a national and non-partisan charity that defends the rights and freedoms of Canadians, the method of using drones for surveillance was unconstitutional.
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CCF Counsel Josh Dehaas said they were notified about the blitz from a Kingston resident who contacted them, concerned that it was a violation of privacy.
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It's a wrongdoing that Dehaas agrees with.
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'It's very clearly an unreasonable search, therefore a violation of the Charter of right to security against unreasonable searches and seizures, which is Section 8 of the Charter,' Dehaas said.
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According to that section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, police and other government officials cannot enter your property, search your belongings, or seize your property without a valid legal basis such as a warrant.
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'Its purpose is to protect a sphere of individual autonomy where you can live out your private life without the state surveilling you,' Dehaas said.
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In the case of Kingston Police, one of the big questions Dehaas raised was whether or not using drones is considered a search.
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'You don't focus on what police are looking for, you focus on what this type of activity is going to attempt to reveal,' Dehaas explained. 'Let's say you have a drone and it's doing collision reconstruction or it's looking for a missing person, and it's at a high altitude, it's not going to reveal a lot of information about an individual person. But if you have a drone hovering near a car and you're using that to zoom in and see what people are doing inside that private space inside their car, you're potentially seeing what's on the screen of their phone. That is going to reveal a lot more private information than other uses of drones that police have done in the past.'
