Article content continued

Peach said he was unable to answer whether or not the technology would be useful as a policing tool. He said no talks about using the technology in Saskatchewan cities are planned.

“For us here in Saskatchewan, this is not an issue, so we haven’t looked at it,” Peach said.

Photo by Liam Richards / The Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Saskatoon police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards said officers in the city don’t have access to the device.

“If we did in the future, its use would be subject to judicial review like many of the other investigative tools we use,” she said. “That’s all we are able to say on this subject.”

Brenda McPhail, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, technology and surveillance project, said stingray technology is on the rights advocacy group’s radar.

She said requests for information on the devices within the Vancouver Police Department by Vancouver-based advocacy organization Pivot Legal Society, and of the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police by the Toronto Star in 2015, have gone largely unanswered.

However, McPhail said chances are slim the device is nowhere to be found in Canada.

“Given how widely we know they are used in the U.S., it seems unlikely there are no stingrays in Canada, but we just don’t know,” she said in an email statement. “This is problematic, as this means that there is no opportunity to ensure the police are accountable in their (potential) use of the technology.”

McPhail said the CCLA is “concerned about the intrusive privacy implications of stingrays” because they provide a wide range of data, including phone numbers, texts, phone calls and websites.