Montreal police body camera project prompts questions about transparency

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre may welcome the new Montreal police body camera pilot project with open arms, but some are questioning whether it will lead to any real change.

Will Prosper has been a community activist in Montreal North for more than a decade.

He says while the idea of officers wearing body cameras is great, he doubts Montreal police will be fully transparent when it comes to what the cameras shoot.

"I really have mixed feelings about it," he said.

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On Wednesday, Montreal police launched a nine-month pilot project that will see some officers wearing body cameras.

The initiative will be the first of its kind in Quebec.

Officer to decide when camera's turned on

Prosper says he is most concerned about the fact officers will decide when to activate the camera.

In the project, officers will be trained to know when to turn on or off the cameras during police operations. 

"That is actually a big issue because this is like an escape door for them," Prosper said.

Projet Montréal councillor Alex Norris agrees. While he applauds the force for the initiative, he worries not all officers will be on board.

This is like an escape door for them.- Will Prosper, community activist

"We need to be rigorous and vigilant to ensure the cameras are always activated, systematically, when they need to be," he said.

"Unfortunately, we do know that there have been some bad apples in the police force and there could be occasions where a minority of police officers might not want to activate those cameras."

When questioned on the issue, police chief Philippe Pichet said wasn't worried.

"They don't have any reason to not put on the camera," he said.

'We need that kind of footage'

The brother of a man killed by Montreal police says he's happy to see this pilot project finally get started, something he's been calling for years.

Pierre Magloire's brother, Alain, was shot two years ago during a tense confrontation with police near the bus terminal on Berri Street. 

Alain Magloire, 41, was suffering from a mental illness at the time of his death. 

"With everything that's happened in recent years, with my brother, with other homeless people, we need that kind of footage," he said.

"We need to know what really happened."

Magloire says when he read the police report about his brother's death, he thought he knew what had happened.

Then footage from nearby security cameras were released and, he says, the report seemed to tell another story entirely.

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He said Montreal police should have implemented this project sooner.

"We needed a lot more dead people before we started acting."