A criminologist says Alberta’s plan to have all police companies within the province use physique cameras may incur prohibitive prices and take a very long time to implement.
Public Security Minister Mike Ellis introduced Tuesday that physique cameras will shield officers and the general public, and assist make choices made by law enforcement officials extra clear.
The United Conservative Get together authorities will work with the Alberta Affiliation of Chiefs of Police on funding, logistics and when the cameras will roll out, he stated. It’s anticipated to take 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 value.
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Doug King, a professor of justice research at Mount Royal College in Calgary, stated physique cameras are a good suggestion, however there are questions that have to be answered, together with who pays the excessive value of storing the video footage.
“It may be prohibitively costly,” King stated Wednesday. “That is numerous cupboard space to keep up as a result of usually it’s a must to preserve the digital camera footage for about two years or extra as a result of that is how lengthy issues take to be adjudicated within the prison courts.
“Then you possibly can’t dump it on a city like Taber, Alta., which has 26 officers, and say you are going to need to do it. We’ll fee it, however we’ll depart you to bear the price of it.”
King stated everybody appears to be on board with the plan, however to suppose that each police service in Alberta will quickly undertake the cameras is unrealistic.
“That is silly. It is in all probability going to take two or three years to get this stuff absolutely applied, so we have now numerous work to do earlier than that occurs.”
Ellis stated Alberta’s plan doesn’t presently embrace the RCMP, however there are indications there’s help for physique cameras on the federal degree.
“I do know that Public Security Canada and truly the prime minister, throughout an incident not too way back, wished body-worn cameras for all law enforcement officials in Canada,” he stated. “It is type of an ongoing course of.”
Cpl. Gina Slaney, an RCMP spokeswoman, stated steps are being taken for some Alberta Mounties to start utilizing physique cams.
“The RCMP in Alberta is about to begin trials with body-worn cameras, so we do not have numerous particulars but,” she stated. “We’re doing these trials in three totally different areas in Alberta…Grande Prairie, St. Paul and Parkland.
“We absolutely help it.”
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So is Edmonton’s police chief.
“I am glad it should be laws … countywide,” EPS Chief Dale McFee stated Wednesday.
“The place they make a distinction is within the accountability and transparency.
“What you see now are numerous movies posted on social media as a snapshot in time, whereas the physique cameras will inform the entire story.
“I’ve to say, our officers would like to have them.
“We have had them in a few finances processes and we’ve not been fortunate to get them there, however I feel with the province legislating a mandate after which doing it provincially … I feel it is a kind of issues that completely goes to extend transparency and legitimacy,” McFee stated.
Calgary police launched physique cameras in 2019.
Veteran Edmonton prison trial lawyer Tom Engel known as the announcement excellent news for police accountability and the prison justice system, however he stated there are nonetheless questions that have to be answered.
“When? How? Who pays for it?” Angel stated.
Engel, the chair of the Legal Trial Attorneys Affiliation Policing Committee, stated they’ve lengthy advocated for physique cameras.
“It got here out of the blue for me. It is good to see the minister simply get up and say now we’ll do that with each police service in Alberta.”
Engel stated he’ll proceed his combat to have in-vehicle audio and video tools put in all police automobiles just like what Calgary police and RCMP use.
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First Nations police forces are usually not beneath provincial jurisdiction, however Ellis stated they’ll assist work on the brand new physique digital camera mandate.
King stated he does not anticipate to see different provinces instantly observe Alberta’s lead. He stated British Columbia and Ontario have many municipal police forces and so they would possibly need to look and see how issues are getting in Alberta.
“I feel in some ways Alberta goes to be, unintentionally, a pilot undertaking.”
– With a file from Emily Mertz, International Information
© 2023 The Canadian Press
