Saskatoon police to use around 40 body cameras as part of 2022 pilot program

Saskatoon police are set to roll out a limited number of body-worn cameras in 2022.

A report presented tothe Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners on Thursday confirmed thatapproximately 40 cameras will be deployed early next year as part of a pilot program.

The force says a "phased and systematic" rollout of more cameras will follow.

Use ofthe body cameras in Saskatoonhas been years in the making, according to Clae Hack, anexecutive director with the Saskatoon Police Force, who presented the report to the commissioners on Thursday.

Hack said that the Saskatoon Police Force began exploring the idea of equipping officers with cameras in the wake of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.

The idea was to deploy cameras to provide greater transparency and accountability, Hack said.

An internal review completed in 2015 found major concern over the battery life of cameras, video quality, storage and the ability to redact private information.As a result, the Saskatoon police chose not to go forward with camerasbut continued to monitor cities in Canada that were conducting their own pilot programs.

"Today the technology concerns of 2015 are largely non-existent, so the technology has come a long way," Hacksaid.

"Many Canadian police agencies are re-examining the technology."

That includes the Saskatoon police, who reassessed it'sstrategy in 2019 and eventually put forward a proposal for a pilot program last year.

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The initial program of 40 cameras was included in the 2021 police budget for a cost of $491,000.

The funding will help cover internal staffing requirements as well as start-up costs for the program including the cameras themselves and the software needed to run them.

Hack said the body cameras will help police by providing additional evidence for investigations andprovide an early resolution in legal matters and public complaints, as well asincrease public trust and police transparency.

A number of details stillneed to be ironed out, Hack said,includingthe development of policies and procedures around the use of the cameras.

Saskatoon police will need to determine when cameras will be turned on and off, which units will be provided with body cameras and the rules around recording in public orprivate places, and during incidents that could be sensitive in nature.

The service will also need to determine how the recordings are accessed andhow long they recordings will be stored.

Although a draft policy has been completed, Hack said the service is just beginning to enter discussions with Crown prosecutors, the province's privacy commissioner and the community for feedback.

An additional $470,000 has been earmarked in the force's 5-year capital plan foran estimate of the possible costs of the body camera program.

However, that could change as the force continues to develop specificpolicies.