Thread by @steffanwatkins

🇨🇦 Excellent report by @Breanna_KS about the Edmonton Police Service's "secret" surveillance plane, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, like, how didn't I notice that one before?

Let's go over (granted, with hindsight) all the details.

👮 🛩️ 👋

https://twitter.com/GlobalNational/status/1494448881140056080

Let's look up the obvious, planes with an owner of "Edmonton"

There are 4 plane owners with that word in their name:
‣ Edmonton Soaring Club ❌
‣ Edmonton Flying Club ❌
‣ City Of Edmonton ✅
‣ Edmonton Regional Helicopters Inc. ❌

Re-do the search using the correct owner:

The City of Edmonton own four Canadian-registered aircraft:

‣ C-FEPS Eurocopter EC120B
‣ C-FEPU Aerospatiale AS350 B3
‣ C-GEPS Aerospatiale AS350 B3
‣ C-GMXM Cessna 182Q ✅

wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/2/…

Meaning, the plane isn't "secret" at all, I just hadn't looked it up before, and evidently nobody else did in thirty years, which is just plane infuriating. (see what I did there?)

jetphotos.com/photo/10083432

🇨🇦 Where have the City of #Edmonton-owned, Edmonton Police Service operated, aircraft been located in the past day or so? 👮🛩️

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c00c29,c…

While @Breanna_KS caveated with "reportedly", the report is not true. We have a picture of the plane with the registration number visible, and on a larger scale, there are no aircraft that are unmarked, that's pop-culture misinformation.

ALL planes are marked. No exceptions.

Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee doesn't know how planes are tracked using open sources, and is due for a rude awakening. Where the plane is parked should be the least of his concern.

The Edmonton Police also operate two Aerospatiale 350B3 Ecureuil helicopters; they use #ModeS

C-FEPU (aka Air1) #C00C2B
C-GEPS (aka Air2) #C050D1

They seem to switch between the two of them, presumably for maintenance. Over the past month only one has been in the air at a time.

By contrast, over #Calgary you can find a much more secret surveillance plane at ~9,000ft, registered to a 3rd party. Nonetheless, we can also track how often C-FNTP flies, where they fly, etc.

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1233219503028350976?s=20&t=XL8WSYs9Cj-FOlDnNdcf3w

Their pattern of movement suggests C-FNTP might be using a dirtbox/stingray to intercept cell phone communication, as well as their electro optical sensor mounted on the left side of the plane (notice the orbit is counter-clockwise)
globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c02452&s…
2022-02-23 / 24 👇

It looks like this, you can't miss it. 👇
jetphotos.com/photo/9183186

We can also track the daily activities of the #Calgary Police Service's helicopters which also use #ModeS.

C-FCPS #C006E1
C-FIVO #C01751

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1491786669808185363?s=20&t=XL8WSYs9Cj-FOlDnNdcf3w

Don't forget the police surveillance powerhouse of.. #Saskatoon? Yeah, I know. They've been so successful in convincing their city council they need a plane for a city of 274k, that Regina's police force (pop 228k) wants a plane too. Planes for everyone!
cbc.ca/news/canada/sa…

There is a lot public flight data for #Saskatoon police operations, if anyone wants to do a deep dive before #Regina buys an expensive plane.

I can't understand why in 2022 they're spending millions buying manned aerial surveillance assets rather than unmanned. Boomer thinking.

...evidently #Regina is run by boomers; they're going to buy a manned surveillance platform in 2022, and pay for its maintenance for decades. 🤦

https://twitter.com/MMelnychukLP/status/1473788216155250691?s=20&t=O1QbPLY5wcMrcjRYE4F1cQ