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We now know which B.C. RCMP detachments will be the first to get body-worn cameras (BWC).
Forty-four Mounties at the Mission detachment in B.C.’s Fraser Valley will begin wearing the devices next week.
The RCMP held public briefings across Canada on Thursday to explain how the process will work.
At an event in Surrey, officers explained that the cameras will always be worn and set in a buffering state.
Officers will need to activate the device to begin recording audio and video. When the button is pressed, the recording will also include the 30 seconds prior to activation from the camera’s buffer.
Police will be required to inform the public that the camera has been activated. Officers will then upload the camera’s storage when they return to the detachment.
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“I am grateful that our officers will soon be wearing and utilizing these cameras,” Mission RCMP Insp. Ted Lewko said.
“I anticipate these body-worn cameras will not only strengthen public trust, an important aspect to me personally, but I also expect them to resolve public complaints more quickly, and to improve the efficiency of evidence-gathering tasks.”
The RCMP said the length of time recordings will be stored will vary depending on the incident captured, with retention ranging from 30 days to over two years in the case of evidence of a serious crime.
The public has the right to seek access to a recording of them by filing a formal request under the federal Privacy Act or Access to Information Act.
After Mission, detachments in Tofino, Ucluelet, Cranbrook, Kamloops and Prince George will be equipped with cameras, in that order.
The RCMP estimates 3,000 officers in British Columbia will be equipped with the cameras by 2026.
The RCMP estimates the cameras and associated digital management tools will cost about $3,000 each.
Delta police have been piloting the use of body-worn cameras for several years, and the Vancouver Police Department began its own pilot earlier this year.
The RCMP has used BWCs in a limited capacity since 2010, and in 2020, ramped it up. The national policing agency plans to roll out up to 15,000 BWCs to frontline officers across the country after field testing in Nova Scotia, Alberta and Nunavut.
The province unveiled province-wide protocols and standards for the use of body-worn cameras in 2019 but left the decision on their use up to individual police agencies.
The province’s standards require police forces to conduct a privacy assessment prior to deploying the cameras, to publicize the circumstances under which they may be used, and to store the footage with restricted access.
B.C.’s civilian police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, supports the use of body-worn cameras, which it says could help speed up its investigations.
Critics of the devices, including the B.C. and Canadian Civil Liberties Associations, have raised concerns about their possible use as a surveillance tool, privacy implications, and the potential for disproportionate impacts on racialized and vulnerable communities.