Police body-cam pilot extended

By Peggy Revell on April 28, 2018.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

Originally slated to run for six months, a pilot project outfitting local police with body-worn cameras will instead wrap up after a full year.

When the project was launched in September 2017, six officers with the patrol section and traffic unit were lined up to wear cameras, while there were two dash-mounted car cameras.

“We just found the sample size was a bit small, to see how these things affected our day-to-day work environment,” said Medicine Hat police chief Andy McGrogan. “What kind of administrative work there was at the back end… How much extra work there was for officers… What value it brought in.”

In March, the pilot was increased by adding four more officers wearing the cameras, and another patrol car was outfitted with an in-car camera. The project was extended to run until September.

Anecdotally, there’s one incident where someone came in to complain about an officer and then left once they saw the tape, said McGrogan.

“But that’s one story,” he said, adding that they need more information before making a decision.

Officer opinion is mixed.

“There’s some that really like them, there’s others that are lukewarm about them, and others that don’t like them,” said McGrogan.

And since criminal cases take months to go through the court, police needed more time to see if it’s having an impact on the prosecution process.

There are no capital costs for the pilot, as Axon Public Safety Canada is providing free equipment and training to police. The cameras cost $499 each and can store 12 hours of the highest quality footage, or even longer if filming in lower quality.

Police are also looking at a number of options — such as full deployment, or a smaller number of cameras, or just with traffic, said McGrogan.

A big part of the project is also looking at how the collected data is being stored, he said.

“We’re doing our due diligence. This is not a cheap venture, we have to do that cost-benefit analysis, eventually we’ll come to the police commission with a recommendation and see what they have to say,” said McGrogan.

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