EDMONTON- The Edmonton Police Service is halfway through its Body Worn Video (BWV) pilot project.
For the past several months about 51 officers have been wearing video cameras on their uniforms, to capture events first-hand.
“Video evidence is an impartial third eye, if you like,” explained Dr. Mary Stratton, the coordinator of the pilot project. “The claims are that this can help investigations, reduce court time, make stronger reports, be useful for resolving internal complaints.”
Stratton says there are some privacy concerns surrounding the cameras, though, which they are addressing.
“We are very aware that there are some situations where privacy would be a consideration and the operational procedures reflect that.
“Sometimes it just isn’t appropriate to be filming random people,” she said. “They also might be taking sensitive witness statements or it might be a complainant who doesn’t really want to be videoed and they have that right.”
So far, Stratton says reviews from police officers who have been wearing the devices have been mixed.
“So far the feed back is they think it’s a tool that has potential to be very beneficial, but the equipment has its limitations and we also hear that.”
Concerns have also been raised over the fact the video cameras have SD cards in them, which “even if it’s screwed in, technically could come out and that’s just the state of the art right now,” Stratton added.
Six more Edmonton officers will be wearing the devices by the fall. The devices are clearly visible and officers recording on a BWV camera will inform citizens in the vicinity that an interaction is being recorded, according to EPS.
The technology is not used anywhere in Canada right now. A few small police forces in the US and UK use BWV.