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By the end of December, most frontline RCMP officers in Whitehorse will be wearing body cameras, according to Christine Grant, the project manager for the body worn camera program in the Yukon.
Body-worn cameras are being rolled out to RCMP officers across the country, as part of a national deployment. According to the RCMP’s body-worn camera policy, the body-worn cameras are meant to accurately record officers’ interactions with the public, enhance public and officer safety, as well as provide evidence for investigative, judicial and oversight purposes. Furthermore, per the policy, the purpose of the body-worn cameras is to “strengthen the commitment to bias-free service delivery by members to the public.”
The national rollout will happen so that over the next nine months, 1,000 RCMP officers each month will begin using body-worn cameras. The RCMP estimate by next November, 90 per cent of RCMP officers Canada-wide will be wearing body worn cameras.
In the Yukon, Grant said she thinks most officers will have body-worn cameras by the end of 2025.
Right now, in Whitehorse, they’re doing staggered training sessions to accommodate officers who may be off the day of the training. The detachment just started to train officers beginning on Nov. 19.
Officers also have to take two online courses as part of their training. The in-person training is a four-hour session, where officers receive their cameras.
Cameras should be activated before the officer arrives, said Grant, a retired RCMP officer herself.
“So that’s what we tell them: seat belt off, camera on, and you’re recording what’s going to be going on, once you exit that vehicle.”
The cameras will become part of a frontline officer’s regular kit, said Grant.
Officers will be required to wear and use the cameras during their day-to-day policing, in any situation from attending to a call, interactions with the public, mental health calls, crimes in progress, or public disorder or protest situations, said Grant. However, in situations where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, officers will not be required to film.
According to the RCMP’s webpage on body-worn cameras, officers who do not follow policy and procedures regarding body cameras may be subject to “internal disciplinary processes.”
Grant said the program has been in the works for years.
Faro and Ross River will be among the first communities in the Yukon to receive the cameras, said Grant. There are concerns around bandwidth, however, she said, as officers are required to upload their recordings to a digital evidence management system on the Cloud once they’re back at the RCMP station.
Those bandwidth issues are “actively being worked on by Shared Services Canada,” said Grant, who said she hopes to have the bandwidth upgraded soon.
Regarding privacy concerns, the Yukon’s Information and Privacy Commissioner directed the News to a guidance document from the federal Information and Privacy Commissioner which was last updated in 2015.
In the document, the information and privacy commissioner said recordings that come out of the police-worn body cameras will be considered to contain personal information. That distinction is because most of the images and sound captured will be of identifiable individuals.
Therefore, the recordings will be subject to Canada’s personal information protection statutes, reads the guidance document.
Law enforcement agencies should also consider the policies they use regarding body cameras, including considerations regarding governance and accountability, responding to breaches, use and disclosure of the recordings, access to recording by individuals under freedom of information laws, and the retention and destruction of recordings.
For example, law enforcement agencies using the Cloud for storage “should be mindful of potential security concerns as well as any legal constraints that may apply in their jurisdiction,” as some provinces do not allow public bodies to store personal information outside the province or country.
Members of the public will know that the camera worn by a police officer is recording when “a trio of red light are visible and flashing below the lens of the camera,” according to a press release issued by the Yukon RCMP on Nov. 19.
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