Some Winnipeg officers to start wearing body cameras in pilot this summer, police chief says
CBC
More than three dozen police officers will soon be equipped with body cameras in a move Winnipeg's police chief says will help investigations and boost accountability.
Chief Gene Bowers said during a Winnipeg Police Board meeting Friday that 40 officers will be part of a body camera pilot beginning in June that will run through summer.
"Any time there's a critical incident that occurs, the first thing we're looking for is video, so I think it's incumbent on us to provide that video," Bowers told reporters after the meeting.
The camera manufacturer is not charging the police to use the gear during the pilot, Bowers said. The cost of the technology has also come down significantly in recent years, he said.
Bowers hopes the modest 40-officer pilot will be able to expand following a review.
Other police forces in Manitoba have widely implemented body cameras.
All Manitoba First Nations Police Service members were outfitted with body cameras as of January, and 98 per cent of front-line RCMP officers working in Manitoba had them in fall.
Former Winnipeg police board chair Marcus Chambers said in 2023 that it wasn't a matter of if the force would adopt cameras, but when.
Bowers said the pilot project, which he promised last year, will be the start, with discussions needed about financing more cameras.
"What we want to see from [the pilot] is how we can integrate that data and move that data through our service and into the courts," Bowers said.
Police board chair Colleen Mayer said the board approves. She thinks the camera data will provide valuable evidence in investigations.
Mayer was also asked what she thinks of how Bowers has responded to a string of corruption allegations involving Winnipeg police over the past year.
"I think our chief has taken the initiative to get on this right away," she said. "The public holds the service into a higher standard, a higher accountability, and I think that the chief has demonstrated that."
Bowers gave the police board a high-level overview of steps he says the Winnipeg Police Service has taken after disgraced former constable Elston Bostock was sentenced to seven years in prison in January.
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