By Kevin Martel

Body cameras for police being tested by RCMP Depot Division

Jan 9, 2015 | 6:09 AM

Cameras worn by police officers are being tested at the RCMP Depot Division training facility in Regina. 

Several jurisdictions across Canada and the U.S. are strapping video recording devices on to officers in an attempt to capture interactions with the public.

“We’re open to any technology that’s going to enhance the efficiencies of our police officers,” Regina Police Cpl. Casey Ward commented.

Ward also serves as the acting president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers, which represents over 1,000 police personnel from six municipalities: Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Estevan and Weyburn.

While he explained how having video could help give the public nearly an exact picture of what police see when they respond to a call, he doesn’t believe the cameras are essential. He said right now they already have many similar forms of technology in place, including GPS, in-car cameras, and body-worn audio.

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“We have lots of level of oversight. Adding another level of oversight that’s going to cost millions of dollars just doesn’t seem realistic.”

Ward said taking a two-minute video on your phone eats up a lot of storage, so imagine how much storage you would need to roll on dozens of officers 24 hours a day. He estimated the cost of simply storing all the raw video footage alone would be in the millions, and then you would have to add on the actual purchasing price of each camera for each officer.

“We feel there is adequate levels of oversight and we’d like to see that money invested in other places—additional police officers.”

There are many other challenges surrounding the cameras. Ward said the province’s cold weather could have an impact on them. As well, they don’t account for background knowledge an officer has been given prior to being called to an incident. For example, if they’re dealing with a violent offender.

In addition, he said right now in Saskatchewan there are about 130 to 150 complaints against police each year, with a minimal amount of those substantiated.

Would more complaints be substantiated if body cameras were worn? That’s what police services from across the country are trying to determine.

Ward couldn’t say whether we might see the body cameras on municipal police officers in Saskatchewan anytime soon, as that will be left up to the heads of each individual service.

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