The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) quietly procured a new surveillance plane in 2023, according to an access to information request pursued by the Progress Report. The new aircraft, replacing an older surveillance plane which had operated for more than 30 years in secret, cost nearly a million dollars more than initial estimates and several million more than comparable planes owned by other municipal forces.
The plane in question is a Diamond DA62, marked C-GACG, flying out of Villeneuve airport. That same plane was spotted outside of the EPS hangar in May and a picture of it was provided to the Progress Report.
The Edmonton Police Service's new Diamond DA62 surveillance plane.
According to the Edmonton Police Service, the capital cost for this new plane was $5.26 million dollars. The annual operating cost of running the plane is $346,000 per year. The original estimated capital cost was reported in 2022 as being $4.3 million.
Diamond markets the twin turboprop DA62 as a luxury product to private owners, touting its spacious interior and leather upholstery. Diamond’s promotional page for the Austrian-made plane describes it as a “luxury flying SUV.”
The company also markets the plane to law enforcement and first-responders, citing the adaptability of its multi-purpose platform (MPP) avionics. The manufacturer describes it as moving “more passengers and equipment further and faster than anything else in its class, with exceptional fuel efficiency, luxury and twin-engine security.”
Dan Jones, a retired 25-year veteran of the EPS and is the chair of justice studies at Norquest College in Edmonton, says in his experience the surveillance plane “was a valuable tool for surveillance for major crimes type investigations when you had people who were suspicious of being surveilled. They would take measures to make sure people weren’t following them and this allowed them to be followed from a distance.”
“The helicopter is really noisy and you know it’s there, when the plane is up it’s hard to notice. It’s a safety measure. It’s a useful tool when it comes to surveillance and when people are driving erratically in a pursuit,” said Jones.
The general idea of police operating a surveillance plane isn’t unreasonable to Jones. But the price tag on this one is hard to justify, he said.
“This is where I struggle when it comes to legitimacy and transparency. The next highest cost was $1.9 million from Regina. So maybe you can’t talk about the specific tool you’re using but the public has a right to know what is being spent when it comes to the police budget.”
According to the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, the Diamond DA 62 was registered in November 2023 and it flies out of Villeneuve airport where the EPS flight hangar is located. The owner of the aircraft is not the Edmonton Police but a numbered company whose listed agent is a lawyer with local law firm Duncan Craig LLP.
The two shareholders of the numbered company that owns the EPS’ plane are Richard Leach and Norma Belcher, with both of their addresses listed as post office boxes. Neither have any online footprint or any obvious connection with the EPS. The lawyer for the registered owners of the plane did not respond to inquiries. The registered owner of the EPS’ previous surveillance plane and of its two currently operating helicopters is the city of Edmonton.
Regina, Saskatoon and Ottawa are the other Canadian municipal police forces that own fixed wing aircraft. In 2018 the Saskatoon Police purchased a 2016 Cessna for $800,000. The Regina police purchased a Cessna in 2022 for $390,000 USD and then later spent another $1.5 million on a high-tech camera and navigation system. The Ottawa police purchased a Cessna in 2001 for $300,000 for surveillance purposes. The Toronto police famously used a plane to buzz former mayor Rob Ford’s mom’s house when they were surveilling him during his time as mayor. And while it was confirmed that the Toronto Police Service owned a surveillance fixed wing aircraft in 2013 it’s not clear if they still do.
The city of Edmonton’s old surveillance plane, which operated on a “confidential” basis, was sold to the city of Vancouver in May of 2024. This purchase appears to not have been publicized and the plane operates out of the Pitt Meadows airport. Jones remembers being told not to mention the plane on the radio when he was an officer.
“It was drilled into me as a young police officer that we don’t talk about it. I still have this feeling that we shouldn’t be talking about it,” said Jones.
While it’s not clear exactly what kind of surveillance capabilities the EPS acquired for their new Diamond DA62 plane, the manufacturer does “offer an extensive portfolio of factory approved sensors, communications and datalink installations for a wide variety of missions.” A post by the manufacturer from 2019 does mention some possibilities saying that that the package they installed in one case was “capable of providing valuable communications reconnaissance and surveillance using the most advanced techniques detecting, analyzing and geo-locating signals of interest automatically.” The package discussed by the manufacturer also includes an infrared sensor and a ground station to view, store and edit surveillance data.
“The combination of these sensors can determine this platform as the ideal tool for surveillance and reconnaissance missions, as well as counter-drug operations, homeland security, and search and rescue,” said the manufacturer.
The Edmonton Police Service did not reply to our inquiries about this matter.