BC Hydro gave police the electricity bills of 3,500 to 5,000 customers per year without a warrant up until 2014, The Tyee has learned.

But shifting priorities — and perhaps the promise of marijuana legalization by the new federal government in 2015 — have led to a plunge in police requests for power bills.

Since 2014, police requests for BC Hydro bills — usually to identify a marijuana grow op — have fallen 90 per cent to 300 to 500 per year, said Tanya Fish of BC Hydro.

The BC RCMP was asked why the number of requests has plunged and for information on its policies on seeking individuals' power bills. It did not offer a reason for a decline, reiterating its adherence to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It said the RCMP doesn't track the number of requests for information it is making.

"Anecdotally, I can confirm that less requests are being made to BC Hydro. There could be many factors, but the Smart Meter program established by BC Hydro has definitely made it more difficult to steal power while increasing BC Hydro's ability to monitor suspicious electrical consumption," said Staff Sergeant Annie Linteau.

Grow ops and hydro theft were a larger concern in past years. In 2010, BC Hydro said it was losing $100 million a year to grow ops that bypassed meters avoid detection.

The Crown corporation now says its revenues from known grow ops — still illegal — are worth $50 million a year.

BC Hydro still hands over customer information to police, including power use, without requiring a warrant.

The corporation provides customer information based on a section of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection and Privacy Act, which states that information will be released to assist in a specific investigation "undertaken with a view to a law enforcement proceeding, or from which a law enforcement proceeding is likely to result."

The Tyee revealed TransLink was providing passengers' information to police based on the same section of the act.

That led to an investigation by the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner. No results have been released.

Ontario's Metrolinx recently completed a review with recommendations after a similar investigation.

BC Hydro did successfully fight a North Vancouver effort to obtain information on every customer using more than 93 kilowatt-hours per day, taking the case to the B.C Supreme Court in 2010.

But it continued to provide information on thousands of customers based on police requests, without any use threshold.

BC Hydro knows the location and account owners of suspected grow ops consuming about $50 million worth of electricity a year.

But the utility will not be turning these reliable bill-paying customers in.

TransLink Increasingly Sharing Riders’ Personal Information, Travel With Police read more

"We act in accordance with privacy legislation," said Fish. "We do not proactively disclose suspected grow-ops (or any other use of elec-tricity within a customer's premise) to law enforcement or other third parties. However, we do file complaints with the police in cases where theft of electricity is confirmed."

Raptors, the hydro Robocops

BC Hydro has taken its own steps to convert power thieves into loyal customers through its "energy inventory balance" approach to bill enforcement.

At the same time as police bill requests were declining, the corporation implemented sophisticated hydro theft detection equipment called TGI Raptors. It set up 4,000 in permanent installations that detect discrepancies between the amount of electricity used and paid for in local areas. Another 1,000 mobile units can be moved to zero in on power thieves when discrepancies are identified.

This method allowed B.C Hydro to catch the thieves in the act much more quickly and turn them over to police, creating an incentive for grow ops to pay for their electricity.