TORONTO STAR: Police bodycams hit Toronto streets Monday
Cameras will be activated every time an
officer responds to a call for service or is investigating an individual
during the course of their duties.
Toronto Police announced that the pilot project to wear cameras will
start next Monday 18 of May, 2015, in which only 100 members of the security
force will carry cameras on their uniforms. According to the chief of police
the use of body cameras will record the interactions and safety of the police
with the public. The controversial pilot plan, devised by the high command of
the institution, which will be put into practice with only 100 police officers,
could help combat the impunity of the heinous crimes committed by the police,
against defenseless citizens and detainees?
If the intention of the police chief and his
subordinates is to demonstrate their credibility to "Serve and Protect the Public," all the police
force should be equipped with the body folded
cameras. The reality is: that we have been victims of the police brutality,
or every day we are witnessing the barbaric tactics that the police force are
using to brutalize children, youth, women, elderly, disabled people. In addition the
public are watching with horror in the streets of this city, in the screens of
the televisions, in You Tube… videos recordings of unjustified police beatings
against detainees and murders committed in vulnerable people. If seriously the
Toronto police chief and their police force are ready, willing to convince and
demonstrate to the public the responsibility which they have with the society,
the daily use of body wear cameras should be mandatory for the thousands of
law-enforcement officers.
Police bodycams hit Toronto streets Monday
Cameras will be activated every time an officer responds to a call for service or is investigating an individual during the course of their duties.
Wendy Gillis / Toronto Star
Order this photo
Toronto police wear body cameras at a news conference introducing the new devices.
It is seen as the natural next step in an era
when surveillance cameras peer down from buildings and citizens whip out
cellphones to record police. On Monday, the Toronto Police Service will
join the growing ranks of police forces adopting the latest
law-enforcement technology when officers head out onto the streets,
cameras rolling.
By the end of May, 100 Toronto police officers
across the city will be wearing the increasingly popular policing tool,
part of a nearly yearlong pilot project that was a recommendation of
the Toronto Police’s use-of-force review that followed the 2013 police shooting of teenager Sammy Yatim.
The small recording device — attached high on
the officers’ torso, near the lapel — has a big job: to increase public
accountability and enhance trust, provide an unbiased account of public
interactions, augment officer and public safety, protect police from
unwarranted allegations of misconduct, and more.
“I feel like it’s a very exciting project; I
think this has the potential to strengthen the policing profession, and I
think it has the potential to strengthen our relations with the
community,” said Staff Supt. Tom Russell at a news conference unveiling
the cameras Friday.
Toronto police are following forces in
Vancouver, Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and London that have already
launched pilot projects experimenting with the police tool. The Calgary
Police Service, one of the earliest adopters in Canada, has moved beyond
the experimental stage and expanded the number of body cameras used by
their officers from 50 in 2013 to 1,100 today.
But the lightning-fast expansion of the
technology across Canada has also prompted a chorus of concern from
privacy groups worried about everything from the tool being used as
surveillance to potential privacy breaches inside private residences.
Earlier this year, federal and provincial information privacy commissioners issued a set of guidelines
for law enforcement agencies, which included a plea for police services
to seriously consider whether the technology is even necessary,
considering the plethora of privacy concerns.
Russell, who is spearheading the body-worn
camera project, assures that Toronto police have carefully considered
the privacy implications of the cameras, in consultation with Ontario’s
Information and Privacy Commissioner.
In cases where officers were invited into a
private home, for instance, officers will turn off the camera when
asked, although the camera stays on during an emergency call inside a
home or while police are executing a search warrant.
Police will similarly keep the cameras rolling
during interactions in public, though citizens will be told they are
being recorded as soon as reasonably possible.
Each officer is in control of turning the
recording device off and on, but Russell says the decision of what and
when to record has been clearly spelled in procedures drafted to ensure
an officer does not simply record when he or she pleases.
Every time an officer responds to a call for
service or is investigating an individual during the course of their
duties, the cameras are to be activated. The record button is also to be
pushed when an officer questions and documents someone not suspected of
a crime, a police practice known as “carding.” Officers will not
activate their cameras during an informal conversation with a citizen.
If an interaction with the public is not
recorded when it should have been, the officer may be subject to a
discipline process, Russell said.
Before heading out onto the streets with the
cameras, the officers participating in the pilot received training at
Toronto Police College, which included running through real-world
scenarios ranging from a domestic-dispute call to an impaired-driving
stop to a regular traffic stop. Officers also “took the stand” in mock
trials using the video.
Const. Neil Robinson, with the Toronto
Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit, said it may take some
time for him and his colleagues to get used to the technology, but in
many ways, the bodycams are nothing new.
“Officers like stability, they like the same
thing, but overall it’s not going to change too much in how we do
things,” he said. “When we’re in the community and people see us talking
to somebody, there’s always another 10 people coming out with their
cameras and recording us. So this is just another camera.”
Robinson said that having his own recording
device is reassuring, since sometimes citizen video of police
interactions may not capture the whole thing.
The cameras will be out in Toronto until the
end of March 2016. The results of the experiment will be presented to
the Toronto Police Services Board in June.
BODY-WORN CAMERA FAQS
When will they be activated?
The cameras will always be on standby, and
activated every time an officer responds to a call for service or is
investigating an individual in the course of their duties.
Who will wear them?
100 officers from the Toronto Anti-Violence
Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) Rapid Response Teams, from Traffic
Services, from 55 Division’s Primary Response Unit and 43 Division’s
Community Response Unit. Police said the variety of officers was chosen
to ensure the project included a cross-section from the force, and chose
cops who regularly interact with the public in a variety of ways.
How long will the video be stored?
Encrypted video will be downloaded at the end
of each officer’s shift, held on a secure server at Toronto Police
headquarters, and kept for a minimum of one year. However, if the video
is required for an investigation it will be flagged and stored for
longer.
How much does the pilot project cost?
The project has a budget of $500,000,
including cameras, software, docking stations and storage. The pilot
project is testing out three types of cameras to decide which one works
best for the officers. Each camera costs between $600 and $1,000. There
is currently no estimate as to what it will cost to have cameras roll
out service-wide.
Can I see the video that an officer has made of me?
The video footage captured by police will be
subject to Freedom of Information legislation, meaning citizens can make
a request to access a copy.
When can a citizen ask for the camera to be turned off?
In a public place, if a citizen asks for the
camera to be turned off, the officer will keep recording if the
interaction is one he is required to record. In circumstances where
citizens have invited the police into their home but don’t want the
camera on, officers will turn it off. However, if officers are in a
private home in an emergency situation or while conducting a search
warrant, the cameras will be left on.
Do officers have the ability to alter or delete the video?
An officer cannot delete anything on the
camera itself. Police say the camera is secure, the video is encrypted,
and an officer goes to a docking station and downloads it to a server.
The officer does not have the ability to alter, delete or edit the
video.
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