now to allegations made by five black Ottawa police officers who say their own service listened in on the most intimate details of their lives through wir Taps put them under surveillance and they don't know why ctv's Katie Griffin is here with the details on this tonight Katie well Patricia this lawsuit was first reported by CBC and in this document dozens of pages detailing how officers who say they were hired to improve the diversity of the service and improve relations with racialized communities were the targets of racial slurs themselves they want to know why they were being watched so closely and say their reputations have been tarnished five black Ottawa police officers alleged they were secretly wiretapped and watched by their own colleagues and haven't been told why constables lean Farah Mohammad Islam Abdullahi Ahmed Amed kader Ali and fasel bilah Hussein alleged police obtained the wire Taps and general warrants based on racist and stereotypical assumptions about black persons of s origin the allegations are part of a $2.5 million lawsuit filed in 2023 against the Ottawa Police Services Board and three unnamed members of Ottawa Police it states the plaintiff officers and three of their family members were told by the Attorney General in 2021 that their private Communications had been intercepted and in some cases they were under video surveillence according to the statements of claim the officers believe that they were the subject of wir TAPS for ulterior motives in breach of their Charter rights retaliation for their complaints about racism within the Ops their attempts to improve the Ops and stereotypes about their kinship and familial relationships Farah and Islam are cousins two of their cousins are gang affiliated which Farah disclosed when he joined the guns and gangs unit the lawsuit States the only conceivable basis upon which the Ops could have obtained the wire Taps and general warrants is by misrepresent pres in the relationships of Farah and Islam to their cousins so far no charges have been laid against the officers or civilian plaintiffs as a result of the surveillance in its statement of Defense the Ottawa Police Services Board denies every allegation the statement of Defense says the Superior Court found the wiretap authorizations were lawfully obtained and that there was no basis to find that the decision to name one or more of the plaintiffs in any of the four applications was racially motivated or otherwise the product of discriminatory beliefs the board also denied alleged discriminatory treatment saying such instances even if true are irrelevant and do not establish a systemic practice by the Ops of abusing state power to intercept individuals based on race or ethnic origin as for wir TAPS in general police need to show their necessary in order to convince a judge to approve them but these officers say they don't know what that was because the applications are sealed according to the statement of Defense a superior court judge found the wire Taps were lawfully obtained but agreed to unseal one application Patricia and Katie how is the smiley Community reacting to all of this well they're going to be holding a news conference on Thursday to talk about this surveillance and what they say is the police services lack of action in addressing the community's concerns Patricia all right ctv's Katie Griffin live for us tonight thank you