Edmonton police to don body cameras starting next week for 6-month trial

About 35 downtown Edmonton officers will be wearing a camera when they hit the street as of Monday.

Hoping to see for itself how the equipment works before the Alberta government requires all law enforcement to wear a camera – and perhaps weigh in on the process of rolling the mandate out – Edmonton Police Service is running a six-month pilot.

"The overall goal of the cameras is to create a more efficient accountability process and reduce the number of use-of-force incidents for both our officers and the public," Supt. Derek McIntyre, from the crime suppression division, said on Wednesday during a show-and-tell.

"In fact, many of our members have told me they are anticipating this trial and they are looking forward to it."

The officers who will participate in the trial are members of the transit, Healthy Streets Operations Centre, community safety and high-risk encampment teams.

"They were chosen intentionally as they have a large and varied number of public interactions that often take place in complex environments with members from the many communities that we serve.

"Likewise, the opportunity to trial the cameras in the presence of our many valued community partners is an asset and we look forward to their feedback," McIntyre said.

HOW THE CAMERAS WORK

The devices manufactured by Axon are roughly the size of a deck of playing cards. They are equipped with a microphone and internal data storage and will be mounted on an officer's head or chest.

EPS' draft policy only "prescribes" when officers are expected to start recording, McIntire told reporters. As he described it, they should hit record "when they start investigating a complaint or when they ask someone questions in order to collect their information."

"When their interaction is complete or officers feel continuing to record is not necessary, they will return the camera off," he explained, adding, "Officers will do their best to advise citizens when they are being recorded."

In sensitive situations – such as a victim interview about a sexual complaint, or an investigation involving children – officers have the latitude to stop recording, McIntyre said. Alternatively, officers also may choose to continue recording in a sensitive but potentially dangerous situation.

"There's always competing priorities. And if our members feel they are unsafe or someone in the situation is unsafe, that is a situation where – though there are other elements which they may consider to turn the camera off – their safety may be the decision that they utilize to keep the camera on."

At the end of their shift, police will upload their camera's footage to an encrypted cloud storage – Axon's Evidence.com – and log and tag it.

The footage cannot be altered or deleted.

It will be disclosed to the Crown Prosecutors' Office if charges are laid.

THE EXPECTATIONS

McIntyre said body-worn cameras provide a better record of interpersonal interactions than vehicle cameras – although he sees EPS using both in the long term.

"It becomes very level setting in relation to what the entire interaction looked like," he commented.

"We've seen on social media, primarily, clipped interactions with the police service, which escalates the level of sensitivity of our interactions in vulnerable populations and we just want to bring transparency to the whole situation… I'm really strongly anticipating that Edmontonians, if the video is disclosed and it does get out into the public sphere, they'll be able to see a lot of compassion and empathy that our police service members do exhibit toward our vulnerable populations."

He also expects the cameras to have a de-escalating effect, which he says has been seen in other jurisdictions.

The leader of Edmonton's Bear Clan Beaver Hills House expects the same thing.

"I think it's going to enable everybody to be on their best behaviour because they will be under scrutiny," Judith Gale told CTV News Edmonton.

Members from the community have told her they might feel safer knowing the interaction is recorded, she said. It's a strategy the group often uses itself, Gale pointed out.

"If it's not recorded, then it never happened, right? If it weren't for all the recording of our gentlemen in the United States there who said he couldn't breathe – George [Floyd] – I don't think they would have had justice."

Calgary Police Service began to use body-worn cameras in 2019. A report two years later found use-of-force incidents dropped by 11 per cent.

Calgary Police Service says police cameras have cut the average police conduct investigation time in half.

CTV News' public safety analyst Chris Lewis anticipates the Edmonton trial will prove the "tremendous advantages" of body-worn cameras.

"I’m not aware of a police department in North America yet that hasn’t reaped huge benefits from it: cost savings benefits, all sorts of benefits in terms of public accountability, and most importantly investigations," Lewis told CTV News Edmonton.

COST SHARING TBD: PROVINCE

The Alberta government promised in March to mandate body-worn cameras for all law enforcement officers with the goal of improving accountability and understanding of police encounters.

The province has not announced a timeline for a full rollout.

According to the Alberta Association of Police Governance (AAPG), Calgary Police Service's camera program cost $1.3 million to launch and about $5 million each year since 2019 to run.

At its recent annual general meeting, the association resolved to ask the government to fund start-up costs and "a significant portion" of annual operating costs once cameras are mandated.

AAPG said the financial burden on municipalities would be "significant" and, since a new provincial body is slated to take over the processing of police conduct complaints, the province stands to benefit from widespread use of cameras and should bear some of the costs.

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, a spokesperson for Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis said the province is working with multiple organizations to look at costs for the cameras.

"We're continuing to work with the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police to develop the mandate and the standards required to implement the use of body-worn cameras across the province," Hunter Baril wrote. "These ongoing discussions, which also involve consultations with the independent Alberta Crown Prosecution Service and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, will help determine costs and logistics."

EPS is already an Axon client and so the trial will be "low cost." McIntyre did not provide a more precise price tag.

A similar three-year Edmonton pilot ended in 2014, with officials citing logistics and video management as too expensive.

Since then, several improvements have been made, McIntyre said: batteries can now last an entire shift during the winter; cloud storage means the footage does not need to be stored manually on servers at the police station; and picture quality is better.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson, Nicole Lampa and Sean Amato