Toronto police will roll out body camera pilot project next week

A select number of Toronto police officers from units across the city will be strapping on body cameras starting next week.

During a news conference at Toronto police headquarters on Friday morning, police revealed details about the new year-long body camera pilot project, which will begin May 18.

One hundred officers from four different units, including 43 and 55 divisions, TAVIS (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy) and traffic services, will be testing out three different cameras as part of the project, which has a budget of $500,000.

Staff Supt. Tom Russell said the purpose of the program is to document an “unbiased, accurate account” of interactions between police and members of the public.

“We are looking to enhance public trust,” he told reporters Friday morning.

“We are looking to increase officer safety and public safety. We are looking to protect our officers from unwarranted allegations of misconduct.”

The decision to launch the project came last fall after a review of police interactions with people in mental crisis.

The cameras will be switched on every time the officers respond to a call for service or are investigating an individual.

“We are not conducting surveillance on people or the community,” Russell said.

“The officers are not going to be activating the camera and simply walking through a community and surveilling people and then later looking at it maybe to see who is associating with who. This is not what this is about.”

Officers have been trained on human rights and privacy issues and Russell said they must inform members of the public when the cameras are rolling.

Those who are captured on police cameras can request a copy of the video through the Freedom of Information Act, Russell added.

Video recorded on the cameras will be encrypted and uploaded to secure servers at Toronto police headquarters and Russell said officers will not be able to edit or delete any of the video footage.

While some police services have been quick to adopt the technology, Russell said Toronto police wanted to take the time to see if the cameras would be a good fit.

“We recognize from the outset this is a very complicated, complex project. The environment in Toronto is very complex as well,” he said.

Russell remained optimistic about the positive impact the cameras could have on members of the public and the police service.

“I think it is a very exciting project. I think this project has the potential to strengthen the policing profession and I think it has the potential to strengthen our relationship with our community.”

Brian Beamish, the privacy commissioner of Ontario, told CP24 Friday that there needs to be very clear rules about how these cameras are used.

"The other feature of these cameras is they are not stationary, these are not like CCTV cameras that are in a fixed location. These cameras will be attached to an officer and therefore will be collecting not only a lot of information but will be in places where there may be a heightened sense of privacy," he said. 

Beamish said that anyone who is recorded by these body-worn cameras can contact the the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario if they have any concerns or complaints.

Mayor John Tory told reporters Friday that the police service is testing out the technology to determine whether there will be any issues, including ones with privacy.

"I think we will know better once we’ve tried these cameras," he said. 

"They seemed to have worked quite well in other municipalities around North America and they seem to cut down on both the number of kind of incidents involving violence on any side and on the number of complaints. I think if that is true, then we will see it will be a successful pilot.”