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By LegalMatters Staff • All Alberta police officers on patrol will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras (BWCs) in an effort to keep them accountable and provide video evidence of interactions with the accused during the arrest.
The Calgary Police Service has mandated their use since 2019. In addition, police vehicles are equipped with dashboard and back-seat cameras that record audio and video, to capture any interaction in the car.
“The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) is the last municipal police force in Alberta to accept body-worn cameras,” says Calgary criminal lawyer Vince Semenuk. “In July, that force launched a six-month pilot project equipping 35 frontline police officers with the devices.”
This is the second such pilot project in that city. He notes that one conducted by the EPS from 2011 to 2014 reportedly found “no statistically significant evidence that BWCs reduced police use of force or citizen complaints, principal reasons cited among other issues for not adopting the cameras.”
Semenuk says officers are expected to wear the cameras, which are approximately the size of a pack of playing cards, on the front of their uniform at all times when interacting with the public.
“They must be turned on when an arrest or detention is likely or happening or the use-of-force is possible,” he says.
Semenuk adds that police are allowed to keep the cameras off in certain situations, such as when the light would give away their location during a nighttime incident involving a person with a firearm.
