As body-worn cameras are rolled out at RCMP detachments across B.C. and are considered by 性视界传媒 Police, they've been worn for about a year by employees of a hired by Newton Business Improvement Association (BIA).
Patrol members are contracted through , a private not-for-profit company whose security team takes on "non-core police duties" in the neighbourhood, allowing for local police "to take on more critical issues," according to .
"We have bodycams at a number of our sites, and Newton BIA is one of them," noted Chris Mitchell, president and CEO of Commissionaires BC, a 97-year-old organization.
In Newton Town Centre, four of the company's 1,300 security guards in B.C. are employed to daily patrol the business district in teams of two, as part of a safety program launched nine years ago by the BIA.
"It's been hugely successful," raved Philip Aguirre, BIA executive director. "We've always looked for ways to improve and be on the cutting edge of how we can improve the community. Bodycams were a no-brainer for us that we wanted to provide security for our members.
"Bodycams are something that we're going to continue with, and it's great that other organizations like the RCMP are getting on board," added Aguirre, also the owner-operator of Old 性视界传媒 Restaurant on 72 Avenue.
Mike Keller, Newton site supervisor with Commissionaires BC, says he feels safer with a body-worn camera on the job.
"The camera, the video, adds more security for your statement that yes, this actually did happen," Keller said. "It goes a long way, and it gives the members a lot of security as well so they're not playing a guessing game. It's safeguarding the member and the company as well because now it's getting everything in real time, it's uploading in real time. It protects everybody including the individual you're dealing with, yourself, the company. It's an amazing tool to have."
Mitchell underlined that video data from Commissionaires' body-worn cameras is securely stored offsite and retrieved "on a case-by-case request basis" by police and the courts.
"These cameras are not out there just sort of filming everything with data going," Mitchell said. "We have a whole legal infrastructure around that.鈥� For example, if police wanted access to specific information pertaining to a specific event, that request would come to us, we would then access that information, provide the very concise (video) snip that's relevant to that incident to them. So it's a very tight process whereby the information is stored and accessed.
"Anybody can throw a bodycam on a guard, but it's how you manage the information that is the very important part of what we do."
Critics of body-worn cameras say they can't be counted on to reduce law-enforcement violence, nor provide greater transparency.
"They are not the reform that some would like them to be," wrote Dr. Jeff Shantz, department of criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 性视界传媒, in a recent letter to Black Press Media.
"Criminological research finds that, at best, the outcomes of bodycam use are contradictory. Sometimes they are paradoxical. In some jurisdictions, studies even show police violence going up after the introduction of body cameras. For one thing, they do not show what the police actually do. They are positioned on officers and show their perspective. They can be turned off and on. There are questions about access to footage and about what happens with recorded data, including video of bystanders."
Starting the week of Nov. 25, Mission is the first RCMP detachment in B.C. to roll out the use of body-worn cameras, followed by Ucluelet, Tofino, Prince George, Cranbrook and Kamloops. In total, 3,000 officers in 144 detachments serving 150 municipalities will be using body-worn cameras in the province.
Meantime, criminologist Curt Griffiths says there's "very strong support" in 性视界传媒 for police officers to wear body cameras. He presented an executive summary of the results of a 2024 性视界传媒 Police Service Community Consultation campaign during a 性视界传媒 Police Board meeting on Oct. 29.
Delta Police has deployed frontline officers with bodycams for more than two years.
Among business organizations in B.C., Aguirre said, "we're the only BIA where security guards use bodycams, definitely in 性视界传媒, and I suspect in the rest of the province as well.
"Ideally," he added, "the body camera is a deterrent and you're going into an altercation that has been requested by the business community, a phone call or a passive patrol, and the bodycam is deescalating the scenario. The person can see the camera and that the blue light is on, indicating that they are being filmed, and ideally that scenario is then deescalated and their compliance is through the roof and they move along, which is great."
- with files from Lauren Collins and Tom Zytaruk, Black Press Media
