Alberta to mandate police body cameras — but who’s paying? | 24CA News
A criminologist says Alberta’s plan to make all police companies within the province use physique cameras may include prohibitive prices and take a very long time to place in place.
Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis introduced Tuesday that physique cams would defend officers and the general public, and assist make choices made by cops extra clear.
The United Conservative Party authorities will work with the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police on funding, logistics and when the cameras will roll out, he stated.
It’s anticipated to be one other three or 4 months earlier than a draft proposal is prepared. There was no fast estimate on how a lot the plan would price.
Doug King, a justice research professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, stated physique cameras are a good suggestion, however there are questions that should be answered, together with who would pay the excessive price of storing the video footage.
“It can be prohibitively expensive,” King stated Wednesday. “That’s a heck of a lot of storage space that has to be maintained because usually, you have to maintain the body cam images for about two years or more because that’s how long things take to adjudicate in the criminal courts.
“You can’t then dump it on a town like Taber, Alta., that has 26 officers and say, ‘You’re going to have to do this. We’re going to mandate it but we’re going to leave you holding the cost of it.’”
King stated it appears as if everyone seems to be on board with the plan however considering that each police service in Alberta shall be adopting the cameras any time quickly is unrealistic.
“That’s foolish. It’s going to probably take two or three years to get these things implemented across the board, so we’ve got a lot of work to do before it happens.”
Ellis has stated Alberta’s plan doesn’t embrace the RCMP now, however there are indications there may be assist for physique cams on the federal degree.
“I do know that Public Safety Canada and actually the prime minister had, during an incident not too long ago, wanted to have body-worn cameras for all police officers in Canada,” he stated. “This is kind of an ongoing process.”
Cpl. Gina Slaney, an RCMP spokeswoman, stated steps are being taken for some Alberta Mounties to start out utilizing physique cams.
“The RCMP in Alberta are about to start trials with body-worn cameras so we don’t have very many details yet,” she stated.
“We’re doing these trial runs in three different locations in Alberta — Grande Prairie, St. Paul and Parkland (County).
“We’re totally in support of it.”
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So is Edmonton’s high cop.
“I’m glad it’s going to be legislated… provincewide,” EPS Chief Dale McFee stated Wednesday.
“Where they make a distinction is within the accountability and transparency.
“What you see now is a lot of videos posted to social media as a snapshot in time, whereas the body cameras will tell the whole story.
“I’ve got to say, our officers would love to have them.”
The Edmonton Police Service did run a pilot undertaking with body-worn cameras previously decade, however they had been by no means adopted force-wide.
“We’ve had them in a couple budget processes and we haven’t been fortunate to get them there,”McFee stated.
“But I think with the province legislating a mandate and then doing it provincially … I think it’s one of those things that will absolutely going to increase transparency and legitimacy.”
Calgary police launched physique cameras in 2019.
Khor Top, a spokesman for Calgary’s South Sudanese group, stated he has combined emotions concerning the cameras, noting some folks have had a fractious relationship with police.
“I think it’s a great idea to have body cameras to deter and overcome some of the issues or actions that might lead to an escalation in some sense,” stated Top, the manager director of the Komkan Africana Institute.
“On the other hand, I think it’s not enough because of how Black community members are feeling about the way the police treat them or the way the police look at them and consider them as thieves, consider them as criminals before any incident.”
Veteran Edmonton legal trial lawyer Tom Engel referred to as the announcement good news for police accountability and the legal justice system, however he stated there are nonetheless inquiries to be answered.
“When? How? Who’s paying for it?” Engel stated.
Engel, the chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association Policing Committee, stated they’ve been advocating for physique cameras for a very long time.
“It came out of the blue to me. It’s good to see the minister just step up and say now we’re going to do it at every police service in Alberta.”
Engel stated he’ll proceed his struggle to have in-vehicle audio and video gear put in all police autos just like what the Calgary Police and RCMP use.
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First Nations police forces aren’t beneath provincial jurisdiction, however Ellis stated they are going to assist work on the brand new body-cam mandate.
“As a self-administered Indigenous Police Service, our funding is quite limited and we are encouraged by the province’s willingness to assist in the procurement, however, that may look,” stated Blood Tribe Police Chief Grant Buckskin.
“We support any initiative where we can further build trust within our community.”
King stated he doesn’t anticipate to see different provinces observe Alberta’s lead straight away. He stated British Columbia and Ontario have many municipal police our bodies and so they would possibly wish to watch and see how issues go in Alberta.
“I think in many ways Alberta is going to become, unintentionally, a pilot project.”
— With a file from Emily Mertz and Caley Gibson, Global News
© 2023 The Canadian Press
