RCMP begins deploying body cameras in Alberta

From traffic stops to arrests, if you are interacting with RCMP, expect to be on camera.

The RCMP are rolling out cameras across Canada, but they aren’t new to officers west of Edmonton, in Parkland County, one of three places in Alberta where body cams were tested.

“Helping increase our accountability, and trust with the public,” said Insp. Kevin McGillivray, officer-in-charge, Parkland RCMP.

The Alberta RCMP expect body cams to be across the province in about a year.

“We are finding it deescalates a lot of those situations as well. They know they are being audio and video recorded, the public knows they are being recorded,” said McGillivray.

Albera’s RCMP will use the same brand of camera operated by Calgary police since 2019.

Alberta’s police watchdog says those cameras have been able to cut timelines in investigations of alleged police misconduct.

“In fact in Calgary, we had a case, talking in approximate timelines, we closed a case in three weeks in looking at the body cameras, and realizing the officer had to fire in self defence,” said Michael Ewenson, executive director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT).

However, many police bodycam videos will not be seen by the public. Law enforcement claims privacy law means most of the footage will only be released to the public when it hits court.

“It will make the justice system significantly faster to actually have some of these things on video,” said Shawn King from the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association.

Defence lawyers will be watching, to make sure the cameras are turned on.

“Currently police, and the RCMP, have in car cameras. They are not always turned on. There are various reasons why they aren’t, there are policy reasons saying if they are in an investigation they have to turn them on, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. The biggest thing, if they have a body cam, we want it to be used,” said King.

“They are expected to turn them on, and there are certain times when they have to turn them off for privacy reasons,” added McGillivray. “An example of that would be, if they are going into a medical facility or into the back of the ambulance where someone is receiving medical treatment. If it is safe to do so, our members would be turning them off.”

While the RCMP body cams are part of a national rollout, police-worn cameras are now mandated by the Alberta government.

Edmonton police say they started a phased rollout in September and plan to have all officers equipped in the spring of next year.