N.W.T. bylaw officer starts wearing lapel camera

A bylaw officer in Fort Good Hope says he'll be wearing athumb-sized camera onhis jacket whenever he goes to work.

John Louison says he wants to stay safe while dealing with dangerous situations. So, every day, before he hits the streets, he clips a USB-sizedcamera to his jacket.

After work, he stores the footage, and will only produce it if there's a complaint or questions.

"I record everything," he says. "It's sound and motion activated, so whenever I'm on duty, it's on."

Louison recentlyused his iPad to record a violent police arrest in Yellowknife last month.That video hasled to an RCMP investigation.

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Louisonsays hewants to be transparent withthe public and documentthe risks officers face.

"In case something goes wrong with an individual, or a matter, and the public is wondering why things go the way they did," he says."They can be made aware through that.

"I hope it catches on so that the public will know that there are a lot of violent calls. There is no typical call that an officergoes to. Every one of them is different. An officer has to adapt very fast. The job is difficult."

So far, says Louison, no one hasobjected to thecamera, which was on when he recently led RCMP to the home of a bootlegger.

Police services in a handful of cities across Canada areexperimenting with body cameras in a series of pilot projects.

"I look at it from the perspective of law enforcement," says John Rossam, an Edmonton-based lawyer."It's a very valuable tool... and one that, I think, is for the benefit of both the police officer and the individual because it provides objective evidence."

Louison says he wants RCMP officers in the Northwest Territories to start wearing body cameras, as well.Yellowknife police and bylaw serviceshave said theyhave no immediate plans to put cameras on officers.