Manitoba Mounties to start deploying body cams in the province this week: RCMP

RCMP officers in Steinbach will be the first in Manitoba to wear body cameras attached to their vests, starting Friday, the police force said Wednesday.

Scott McMurchy, assistant commissioner, said the city of 18,000 people was chosen to springboard the cameras because of the community's proximity to Winnipeg headquarters — about 50 kilometres away — and its reliable internet connectivity.

"If there are any technical issues, any logistical challenges that the team here from headquarters can deploy out to the detachment of Steinbach to support the front-line detachment members and ensure that these systems are working properly," McMurchy said a news conference.

Mounties in Portage la Prairie, Amaranth and Treherne, East Saint Paul, Grand Marais and St-Pierre-Jolys will be the next in line for the cameras, and will receive them throughout December 2024 to January of next year.

Forty-four detachments across the province will receive body cams over the next five months, including several detachments serving First Nations communities.

A red light will flash below the camera lens once the record button is pressed on the device. The collected footage will remain on the device to then be uploaded to a maintained digital evidence management system that only the officer involved and supervisor has access to, said McMurchy.

McMurchy says the body cameras, from Axon Public Safety Canada Inc., are a step forward to answer public calls for law enforcement to be more transparent and accountable.

"There is no ability to edit the footage," McMurchy said.

"The original video is retained and stored," said McMurchy.

McMurchy says officers trained to use cameras are required to read and acknowledge policies around the body cam usage and may be subject to an internal code of conduct investigation if they fail to turn the cameras on while required.

The RCMP officers will not be the first police officers in Manitoba to use body cams. Officers in the town of Altona, which has its own police service, began using body cameras in 2021.

Body cams 'inconsistent': prof

"We have no way to really tell one way or the other if body cameras really do in fact contribute to transparency and accountability," said Christopher Schneider, sociology professor at Brandon University.

"These two terms are not typically measured in the scientific research literature," Schneider said.

The body cams are less transparent in a Canadian context because the expectations on how the public will have access to camera footage may not align with laws here as compared with the U.S., says Schneider.

"Canadians can expect to not see body-worn footage," said Schneider.

Because the footage collected from body cameras will only be accessible by the police, they have better control of the narrative in police incidents, Schneider says.

The local cameras are part of a national program funded by the federal government, who committed nearly $240 million over six years to start the national program, and will contribute around $50 million annually in operating funding.

In Manitoba it will cost around $2 million each year once all 674 frontline officers are fitted with a body-worn cameras.

Schneider says the cost of the body-worn cameras — measured against the inconsistent evidence that they reduce police violence and civilian complaints — is problematic.

"If we were to take hundreds of millions of dollars we could invest that elsewhere that would actually lead to discernable reductions in crime and harm, supported by evidence and research," such as social welfare programs, Schneider said.