Most public interactions between Greater Sudbury police officers and members of the public will be captured using body-worn cameras when they are fully deployed, by approximately 2026.

“With few exceptions, when officers interact with members of the public, it is expected that cameras will be on,” said Insp. Marc Brunette said Sudbury.com.

“The camera will show both sides, so you will have a third witness on every call,” said Const. Marc Savignac told the police commission during Wednesday’s meeting at Tom Davies Square.

“It’s a tool, and its purpose is clear: it’s about building trust in the community.”

Savignac wore one of the Greater Sudbury Police Service’s first body cameras during the meeting. The cameras were recently acquired as part of the first phase of a wider rollout at the end of which all 170 frontline officers will wear the devices throughout their shift.

The first phase will begin in January, when 30 members of GSPS’s emergency response and traffic enforcement units begin wearing the chest-mounted cameras, following training next month.

In North Bay, the The body-worn camera initiative has stalled and its prospects for the future are dwindling. since new Police Chief Daryl Longworth took charge of the North Bay Police Service.

Brunette said it was premature to determine when they would move to the second phase, consisting of a full deployment of body-worn cameras, but that it would likely take place by early 2026.

Savignac’s Wednesday presentation helped explain why police are adopting body-worn cameras, as well as when and how they will be used.

The camera used is Axonal body 4which is the latest release from the Arizona-based company.

This was a single-source acquisition, Chief Sara Cunningham said, because of their ability to connect to other pieces of police equipment, allowing them to automatically switch and start recording every time a firearm or conducted energy weapon is unclipped.

The camera’s field of view is 160 degrees, with a battery life of 14 hours, recording up to 128 GB of video at doorbell camera resolution, which Savignac says is enough to stay operational for an entire working day.

Not that they will record at all times, the gendarme clarified.

They are intended to record public interactions between police and civilians.

Police will need to let people know they are being recorded as quickly as possible and ask permission when they are in a private residence, hospital or school. While members of the public may refuse to be filmed in private residences in some cases, GSPS policy requires that all public interactions be filmed.

Exceptions to people’s ability to refuse filming in a private setting are when a search warrant is executed and when officers are responding to an active incident of suspected criminality.

Officers will need to turn on cameras to record interactions. In some cases, Brunette said interactions might start quickly and police might not activate their cameras.

In cases where firearms or conducted energy weapons are unclipped, a sensor is triggered and all body-worn cameras within approximately 30 feet automatically turn on.

Data from the cameras will be loaded into the police database at the end of each shift, and a behind-the-scenes team will be responsible for classifying the information and preparing it for use. When used as evidence, some elements such as children’s faces may need to be blurred, while some audio elements, such as identifying comments, may need to be removed.

As for access to the data itself, Savignac said anyone viewing the video would be digitally flagged and anyone viewing the video without permission to do so would be in trouble.

“It’s not to embarrass anyone,” he said of the captured video. “It’s about capturing evidence.”

In addition to internal viewing by GSPS members, access to videos may be granted through the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, an authorized complaints resolution process, by the intermediary of the courts and made public by the police chief in the event of “constraint”. the public interest. »

“I wish we had this years and years ago,” Savignac told the board. “It shows the truth of what’s happening, even though different people have different angles, perspectives and sobriety. …It will record the good, the bad and the in-between. »

Not only do body-worn cameras provide a layer of transparency to the public, but they could also protect officers from frivolous complaints.

“When people see themselves in a video and how they react on that day and in that moment, and where sobriety is influenced…they will have a different perspective when they see the video.”

Body-worn cameras are becoming more common among police services, with the RCMP announcing last week that it would deploy them more than 10,000 cameras across the country over the next 18 months.

The Greater Sudbury Police Commission approved a budget allocation for body cameras in early 2021 and made an agreement with Axon Public Safety Canada Inc. for deployment initially planned for the end of 2022.

Significant work was necessary at the back to prepare the data dump they produce, with phased implementation next year with an initial 30 cameras planned to troubleshoot issues before full deployment.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and politics for Sudbury.com.