
On June 8, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that body-worn cameras (BWCs) for police “shows transparency, and I think it would be very important for police officers to have them in this country.”
Will equipping all police in Canada increase transparency? Recent Canadian examples suggest not.
There is zero empirical evidence in Canada that the use of BWCs improves transparency. In fact, there is very little data in Canada generally on the efficacy of BWC technology. The belief that the sudden widespread deployment of BWCs across the country would result in better transparency and improve policing is a reactionary decision that is both largely unfounded and expensive.
There are several serious concerns with the expectation that body camera technology will improve police transparency. The most pressing of such concerns is that there is no universal consensus between the public, local politicians, and police management on what “transparency” exactly entails.
Calgary is the only major city in Canada where all front-line officers are equipped with body cameras in the interest of transparency and accountability — at a significant cost to taxpayers.
Nevertheless, a cell phone video surfaced from an October 2019 encounter between Calgary police and a 51-year old white woman that shows two male officers forcefully arresting her in her home as they both hold her down while she cries out “I can’t breathe.” Both officers were wearing BWCs yet the public is learning of this case now only because the woman has filed a formal complaint and contacted the media.
[Interesting Read]