6 Fredericton police officers will start wearing body cameras this month

Six Fredericton police officers will begin wearing body cameras on July 16, a few months ahead of schedule.

The Fredericton Police Force planned to launch the cameras in the fall, but they arrived earlier than expected, said Deputy Chief Martin Gaudet.

Meanwhile, interview room upgrades, which were supposed to happen first, are going to take longer than anticipated because they're also being relocated to the first floor to improve safety, he said.

"So we wanted to roll the [cameras] out."

Won't be on 24/7

The six officers being assigned the cameras all participated in the three-month pilot project last year, so they already know how to use them, said Gaudet.

Under the force's "robust" policy, the officers are supposed to activate the cameras when responding to a call or when they "come across an incident requiring investigation."

We're feeling quite comfortable that this is the way we need to proceed.- Martin Gaudet, deputy chief

The  cameras will be recording, but not saving, constantly. 

Once an officer activates the camera, the saving will start. The camera will capture the previous 30 seconds of video and start recording the audio.

Not every contact with the public warrants a video, said Gaudet, citing privacy issues and storage capacity as reasons.

Although the policy has faced critics, the deputy chief contends it's "consistent with other policies across the country and around the world.

"So we're feeling quite comfortable that this is the way we need to proceed."

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In the U.S., some officers involved in shootings have been criticized and even charged for not using their cameras or turning them off while incidents unfolded.

Gaudet did say the Fredericton Police Force's policies are "living documents, so they're reviewed" and might change.

The force's use of the cameras is guided by five key principles:

• To collect evidence.
• To enhance transparency, public trust and confidence.
• To enhance officer accountability and professionalism.
• To protect officers from unfounded allegations of misconduct.
• To de-escalate a situation.

Gaudet hopes to add more cameras in the future.

As it stands, three are assigned to platoon officers, who work four days in a row (two day shifts and two night shifts), then get four days off, while the other three are assigned to traffic officers, who work 10-hour shifts, both days and evenings.

"So you know, some days, maybe four of the six are working, and some days or evenings maybe none of those officers are working.

"That's why it would be nice to have all frontline officers equipped with body cameras in the future," said Gaudet.

Of the Fredericton Police Force's 105 officers, about 65 are considered frontline — 48 with the primary response team and another 15 to 18 on the neighbourhood action team.

The cameras cost about $400 each.

In April, city council approved a $115,000 agreement with Axon Public Safety Canada Inc., for six body cameras and new digital audio-visual recording equipment to upgrade interview rooms at police headquarters.

The original plan was to hook up all the interview rooms and train all the officers on the digital management platform before launching the body cameras.

But the interview rooms are being relocated from the second floor to the first floor to keep prisoners in the booking and cell area when they call a lawyer.

"Right now we have to move people in our general facility until they get to the interview rooms and that's not safe and it's not good," said Gaudet.

"As you can well imagine, summer months in construction, we have to be patient. Once that's all done, then we can hook everything up."