Starting November 18, frontline RCMP officers, at select detachments, across Canada will start to wear body-worn cameras. Audio and video captured on body-worn cameras will be uploaded and maintained on a secure digital evidence management system.
Over the next nine months, approximately 1,000 frontline RCMP officers, per month, will begin using body-worn cameras and the digital evidence management system. By this time next year, 90 per cent of frontline members will be using body-worn cameras and full deployment will be complete in the next 12-18 months.
Body-worn cameras serve as an independent, unbiased, and objective way to capture interactions between the community and police officers, which can help increase trust between police and the communities they serve. It will also help resolve public complaints more quickly, and improve evidence gathering.
As part of ongoing efforts to be transparent and accountable to the communities we serve, the use of body-worn cameras and the digital evidence management system will be a national standard for all frontline general duty police officers across the country.
The rollout of body-worn cameras to Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers is another step towards building a more modern and accountable RCMP and enhancing trust between the RCMP and the communities it serves.
Canadians must have confidence in the agencies tasked with keeping them safe. This initiative is another positive step towards strengthening public trust through enhanced transparency and accountability and demonstrates the RCMP's ongoing commitment to building stronger relationships with our communities.
Quick facts:
- Axon Public Safety Canada Inc. is the contractor supplying the RCMP's body-worn cameras and digital evidence management system.
- RCMP officers will wear the body-worn camera on their chest and the public will know it's recording when red lights are flashing below the lens of the camera.
- Over 2,000 BWCs will be deployed during the first three months, and more than 10,000 BWCs will be rolled out across the country when rollout is complete.
- Officers are provided with policy and training on the use of BWCs.
- BWCs will not be used for surveillance, 24-hour recordings, settings with a high expectation of privacy (for example: washrooms, hospitals, treatment centres), nor during strip searches or internal body cavity searches.