I have been to the bar in question in this article, and have to say in theory I have no problem with what they're trying to accomplish. As stated elsewhere, this has nothing to do with avoiding selling booze to minors. A standard ID check is enough for that (current BC drivers licenses are very difficult to forge. I have yet to see a fake one, and would figure the skills and equipment required to produce a fake put it way out of reach of your typical teenager wanting to buy alcohol.)
The procedure for entering these bars is to discourage criminals (i.e. gang members) from entering the premises, and in the case a violent incident does occur, provide an ability to track the perpetrators as efficiently as possible. The execution of these procedures is done very fairly as well. The bouncers are courteous (as long as you are, I'm sure) and treat everyone the same -- no "You're hot, you don't need to participate" bias that I've seen. Everyone lines up. Everyone gets patted down. Everyone scans their ID. Everyone smiles for the camera. It's very quick and smooth if you don't make a big deal out of it.
People who think this reeks of "police state" need to remember this is a private business you can choose to either enter, or not enter. If you want to enter, you have to abide by their rules.
Should anything bad go down in the bar that night, they have an exact record of everyone who was in the bar, as well as current-as-of-that-night photos of them. More then anything, having the patrons all know that acts as a huge deterrent. The bar in question used to have problems with "thugs". I have heard of no problems since they implemented the system. I actually enjoy going there knowing I don't have to worry about some of the violent problems that other bars have.
That being said, there are definitely some changes that could be made to improve the process for everyone. I could definitely see bouncers getting irritated by patrons questioning their policies, but I'm guessing it's mainly because they don't really know the nitty-gritty details as it's just their job to get people through the system as quickly as possible. This would create tension and bad vibes between patrons and the bar, which is probably what leads to complaints and court cases like this.
Creating a fair and acceptable privacy policy, adhering to it (and maybe have an independent audit proving that they do adhere to it), and educating the bouncers to be able to answer questions regarding it would go a long way into gaining users trust of the system. Even have printed copies of the privacy policy available for customers to step aside and read before making a decision to enter the bar to keep the line flowing.
