Tax hike urged to fund police body-worn cameras

Sutherland concerned costly program could become a victim of budget cuts

A city councillor is warning that proposed cuts to the Calgary Police Service budget could mean delays in rolling out new police body cameras — and is calling for an increase in taxes to keep the plans on track.

Coun. Ward Sutherland is concerned that proposed cuts, as the city prepares to set its four-year financial plan this fall, will reduce staff sizes, which will have an effect on appropriately operating the body-worn cameras.

“There’s a very sophisticated back room for the cameras — data retention, software, how it’s going to be used, the security for it, etc. There’s a high cost to doing that at the same time,” said Sutherland, who also sits on the city’s police commission.

“It’s going to be a lot of data and it has to be secured data, and who’s allowed to see it and protocols and all that kind of stuff is really strict.”

Sutherland said the 911 call rates are up “in the thousands,” and with current staffing levels at CPS, it’s a challenge for officers to respond in a timely manner.

More cuts would mean fewer staff. As a result, Sutherland is asking for a budget boost that would equal $14.3 million, equivalent to about a one-per-cent increase in property taxes.

The potential for further delays in getting body-worn cameras for officers comes after a pilot project, rollout and then recall of cameras last year due to technical issues.

Calgary police said they are working on getting new cameras and are moving forward with a public bid process to acquire them. There is currently no timeline on when the service would roll them out or how much it would cost.

“Since the last pilot project there has been a lot more options available in terms of what kind of data do we use — do we use cloud servers, do we use (other) servers? All of that will factor into the RFP (request for proposals) and what we’re looking at from a cost perspective,” said a Calgary police spokeswoman.

However, Sutherland indicated the operating costs to run the cameras behind the scenes could be anywhere between $4 million to $5 million on a “regular basis.”

Linda McKay-Panos, executive director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, agrees with Sutherland’s concerns, saying the cameras will record a lot of data and that gathering that information will have to comply with stringent federal and provincial privacy laws.

“That governs how it’s collected, whether there’s consent, who sees it, who you share it with and all those things. That is going to take a lot of staff power to do a proper job, otherwise there will be complaints that police are not following privacy guidelines,” said McKay-Panos.

Sutherland said with October’s civic election looming, it’s “imperative” all the candidates running for mayor and councillor positions “realize this (budget) add-package is coming and they’re going to have to make a decision.”

“(Everyone is) saying we want to guarantee a safe environment in the neighbourhoods. They’re going to have to realize in order to do so, we’re going to need this,” said Sutherland.

“If they’re saying no tax increases, they need to be aware these things are not going to happen.”

It’s going to be a lot of data and it has to be secured data, and who’s allowed to see it and protocols and all that kind of stuff is really strict.