Vancouver police's body-camera pilot pushed back to new year

After promising to implement a body-camera pilot project this fall, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) now says 80 officers will be fitted with the cameras at the beginning of January 2024.

The force held the first of two public virtual meetings over the project on Monday evening to explain how it would work, and to take questions.

"We anticipate that during the pilot there will be lots of takeaways and lots of feedback including from the public that will guide the establishment of the fully fledged policy down the road," said Supt. Howard Tran.

The VPD has been considering the use of body-worn cameras (BWC) as a way to increase transparency and accountability since at least 2009.

In June the force announced that a six-month pilot project would begin in the fall of this year, a month after a B.C. Coroners Service inquest into the beating death of a man in Burnaby, B.C., in 2015 recommended the force implement the technology.

Myles Gray was 33 when a violent confrontation with several police officers on the Vancouver-Burnaby border ended in his death in a Burnaby backyard. A central issue in the case was the lack of witnesses who saw what happened between him and the officers involved in his death.

Axon cameras

The virtual town hall on Monday night did not address why the pilot project had been pushed back, but it did offer more details about it.

A VPD spokesperson told CBC News the project has been a "significant endeavour," involving months of working with stakeholders, getting community feedback, sorting through legal considerations, and training officers.

Eighty officers will wear cameras procured from Axon, a company which supplies multiple police departments with BWCs, said the VPD officers who hosted the Monday night meeting.

They also said the officers wearing the cameras will be active in the northwest and northeast sectors of the city. Traffic section officers will also participate in the pilot. 

On Monday, officers involved with the pilot demonstrated how the cameras, which have a 12-hour battery life, record video continuously on a 30-second loop, meaning they overwrite footage every half-minute, until an officer holds down a record button, which activates the camera to record video and sound until it is turned off.

The cameras are meant to be used in many different situations, such as speaking to someone in a police investigation, when violent or aggressive behaviour is expected, or assisting in de-escalation.

The VPD has a list of details about the pilot project listed on a special page on its website.

BWC video will be stored on a provincial digital evidence management system and will be automatically deleted after 13 months unless it is being retained as evidence in relation to an event or for training purposes, according to officers at the Monday night meeting and the force's website.

Officers will also hand out cards with QR codes to people they have filmed so they can participate in a survey about their deployment, police said.

"So that's one way that members of the public will be able to give us feedback about how they feel dealing with our members wearing a body worn camera," said Staff Sgt. Andrea Anderson, a project co-ordinator.

Increased cost

In December of last year Vancouver city council approved a motion to equip all frontline and patrol officers with BWCs by 2025 and allocated $200,000 for the pilot project.

In November, a report at the Vancouver Police Board said the the pilot project would now cost $307,000, but would span a year and cover equipment, facilities infrastructure, support and administration staffing.

Councillors are expected to vote on the city's proposed $2.15 billion budget on Tuesday, which includes $440 million in spending on police services.

A second virtual town hall meeting about the cameras will take place on Dec. 14 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PT.