IIO boss wants body cameras mandatory for cops in B.C.
IIO says all uniformed police in the province should be outfitted with the technology
The head of the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. wants all uniformed police officers in the province to wear body cameras while out on the streets.
Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the agency, said improvements in technology, reductions in cost, and changes in public expectations meant the time was right to introduce body-worn cameras for police when they are on duty and not in their police station.
“I think it is in the public’s interest that we outfit our police officers with body cameras,” MacDonald said. “That will give an additional amount of evidence for organizations such as mine to both show when police didn’t do anything wrong or to give evidence when they have done something wrong. It cuts both ways.”
MacDonald’s comment came the same day that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he planned to push provincial premiers to equip police with body cameras as a rapid solution to allegations of racially motivated police brutality.
Body cameras have been used in pilot projects in B.C. involving small numbers of officers.
The IIO investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, whether or not there is an allegation of wrongdoing.
MacDonald did not link his support for body cameras to the current wave of anti-police sentiment in Canada and the U.S. related to police killings and other incidents involving black people and Indigenous people. But he said that Canada needed to follow the U.S., where most major police forces have outfitted their officers with body cameras.
“Now the time has come where the costs have come down, as a society we are getting much better at dealing with data issues and the privacy issues, and there is an expectation from the public,” he said. “This is about the public interest, and if we don’t meet their expectations it will have a poor effect on their faith in investigations.”
Body cameras have been on the IIO’s radar since 2015, when a legislative committee reviewing the IIO recommended that “the provincial government aggressively pursue the steps necessary to implement the police use of body-worn cameras, in consultation with police and non-police stakeholders.”
At that time the IIO said body-worn cameras would have significantly helped with most of their investigations.