Fredericton police seek body-worn cameras for all front-line officers by 2023
Aidan Cox | CBC News | Posted: November 17, 2022 12:00 PM | Last Updated: November 17, 2022
Police force asking city council to allocate $60,000 in next year's capital budget to purchase 48 new cameras
The Fredericton Police Force wants body-worn cameras on every front-line officer by next year, but won't reveal the policy they'll follow around how they're used.
The force is hoping city councillors approve the spending of $60,000 in next year's capital budget to buy 48 additional body-worn cameras to add to the 12 currently in use.
Police Chief Martin Gaudet, speaking at a recent public safety committee meeting, said that will ensure cameras for every front-line officer.
"It's a piece of kit that has to be individually provided to an officer," said Gaudet.
"It's about evidence — digital evidence — and it's about quality audits, and making sure that that evidence is assigned to me when it's captured under my camera, whether it be at a crime scene or a motor vehicle stop."
CBC News asked for the operational policy officers follow on how to use body-worn cameras.
In an email, spokesperson Sonya Gilks said the Fredericton Police Force does have an operational policy, "but it's internal."
She did say the purpose of the policy is to ensure the cameras are used properly to "gain the maximum benefit from their operational use."
Gilks also said all staff who use the equipment or access the images must comply with the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the New Brunswick Police Act."
The objectives of using body-worn cameras include improving evidence collection and documentation, she said, and reducing use of force incidents by and against officers by affecting the behaviour of individuals who are aware of the recording.
The hope is also that they increase transparency, accountability and public trust and confidence in the Fredericton police, Gilks said.
Policy on use should be public, says expert
Body-worn cameras on their own won't serve to enhance police accountability, said Brenda McPhail, director of the privacy, technology and surveillance program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Rather, their effectiveness comes down to having policy in place to prevent them being inconsistently or improperly used, she said, adding the policy should be made public.
"So there are issues there too around who controls the camera, what the policy is in terms of whether or not officers have discretion to turn it on and off, and then how that evidence plays out in court and what credibility is given to it," McPhail said.
McPhail said other important policy considerations include whether officers are required to inform citizens when they're being recorded, and the rights citizens have around requesting access to footage they were captured in, or that the cameras be turned off when an officer is in a private residence.
"There should be sort of a thought process that goes into thinking when can a camera be turned off at the request particularly of a victim, and when they must stay on, and where does the decision on that vest? And it shouldn't vest exclusively with individual officers."
Benefit of body-worn cameras unclear
Body-worn cameras have been adopted by police departments across New Brunswick and the rest of North America in recent years, with officials touting how they'll assist with evidence gathering and add an extra layer of accountability for officers' actions.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year said it was unclear whether the use of body-cameras have actually achieved what police forces hoped they would.
In a Jan. 7 report, the department's National Institute of Justice said the main reasons police forces had acquired body-worn cameras were to improve officer safety, increase evidence quality, reduce civilian complaints and reduce agency liability.
"Research does not necessarily support the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in achieving those desired outcomes," the institute said.
"A comprehensive review of 70 studies of body-worn cameras use found that the larger body of research on body-worn cameras showed no consistent or no statistically significant effects."
One of the more promising roll-outs of body-worn cameras was in Birmingham, U.K., where a "statistically significant reduction" in citizen injury was observed, but no statistically significant reduction in officer use of force or injury.
In a less promising example of their effect, evaluators found that the use of body-worn cameras by police in Washington, D.C., resulted in no statistically significant differences in police use of force, nor the number of citizen complaints.
Approved in principle
Fredericton police announced in fall 2019 that they were using five body cameras as part of a pilot project that uses them to link officers in the field with mental health professionals better skilled at intervening in mental health crises.
In spring 2020 they bought another seven cameras, and now the 2023 capital budget, which was approved in principle by councillors last month, would see $61,262 spent on the 48 new cameras.
Councillors still have to give final approval for the budget at another meeting later this month.