Body cameras ‘good news’ for policing, public safety, VPD says

The approval of a city council motion that will see every Vancouver police officer equipped with a body-worn camera is being touted as “good news” by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).

Speaking with OMNI news Thursday, Deputy Chief of the VPD, Steve Rai, says body cams will benefit both police, and the public.

“It’s good news for the VPD and it’s good news for policing. Body-worn cameras bring accountability not only to the public but also to the police officer,” he said.

Read More: Vancouver council passes motion on police body cameras

On Wednesday, Vancouver city council approved a motion that will look to see how much a body camera program will cost, with a plan to have them equipped on every officer on patrol by 2025.

Rai says the next step will be a pilot program for the equipment, which will be modelled off of rollouts seen elsewhere in the world.

“Rest assured, this is not technology or policies that are not being utilized elsewhere,” he said. “It’s a very proven technology.”

The deputy chief says in places like England, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of the United States, policies require officers to have their body cameras turned on when they exit their police cruisers. There would also be repercussions for officers that fail to do so or tamper with the equipment.

Where Rai believes the cameras will help the most is when it comes to more serious incidents.

“When you have a critical incident, you can see exactly what occurred. It will protect the officer from proving or disproving his actions. It will also give the public security knowing that their version, their recollection was recorded,” he explained.

Police body cameras were a campaign promise for the ABC Vancouver party, which holds a majority on council. That majority proved to be the difference in Wednesday’s decision, which was carried on a 7-3 vote, with the only-non ABC members voting ‘no.’

Not enough information on body cameras, critics say

One of the councillors who voted against the motion on body cameras Wednesday was Christine Boyle.

She tried to amend the motion so that council would endorse a pilot program for body cameras rather than green-lighting a full rollout. That amendment did not pass.

“We were left with a motion that seemed to be fully endorsing something that we really don’t have sufficient information about in terms of effectiveness or cost,” Boyle told CityNews after the meeting on Wednesday.

“We need to be looking at evidence and effectiveness in terms of how we fund those goals. We didn’t have that information.”

Boyle says she spent the weekend going over research into body cameras and found it to be inconclusive.

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“I support the larger goal of improving community safety and the goal of improving transparency and accountability in policing,” she explained. “We should be making our decisions not based on campaign promises or what we wish were the case, but [rather] what is most effective.”

Other critics of the body camera program have brought up concerns about privacy and inconclusive evidence about them.

With files from Kier Junos and OMNI News