Calgary police have launched a voyeurism investigation after dozens of women were filmed without their knowledge and posted onto a Twitter account called “Canada Creep.”
In some cases, the person behind the camera shot up the skirts of unsuspecting women.
People behind another popular Twitter account called “Crackmacs” urged their followers to report the account and by Tuesday morning the “Canada Creep” account had been suspended.
Police say it had been up and running for about a year and they are alarmed they hadn’t received any complaints until this week.
The account had about 17,000 followers.
Several women working in downtown Calgary told CTV Calgary they found the footage creepy, inappropriate and “scary.”
“How do you stop this thought?” asked Melissa Souto. “When you see someone taking a picture in this situation it’s kind of hard.”
One criminologist says there is a grey area with these types of accounts.
“It can be argued that because it is a public space there is no notion of privacy so limited in terms of that recourse in the legal system,” says Dr. D. Scharie Tavcer, a criminologist at Mount Royal University.
But police say filming up women’s skirts is over the line into criminal action.
“We have started an active investigation,” says Staff Sgt. Cory Dayley. “We are looking at all the reports coming in as well as proactively looking for the people that are victims of the crimes we are seeing online.
“Anything that is underneath a layer of clothes there is an expectation of privacy in our mind and under the (Criminal Code).”