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As technological advancements have been made people in all occupations have integrated new tools into their daily tasks. Law enforcement officers are not an exception. Police officers in Toronto are taking part in a pilot project involving body cameras. While there are many who support the use of the technology others are not as keen.
There are a couple of reasons why people are in support of police officers in Toronto wearing lapel cameras. The first is that they record how the police officers conduct themselves and would allow others to see if there was any misconduct. In some situations it is possible that footage captured by the cameras could also be used as evidence at criminal trials.
Those opposed to the use of the cameras are concerned about privacy issues. There are questions about who will be recorded and whether they will know that recording is taking place. It is possible that some might also be worried about what will be done with the footage after the fact.
The pilot, which is at least in part a result of a recommendation provided following an independent review focused on dealing with people in crisis, is slated to run until June 2016. Until then 100 officers will wear one of three different types of body cameras.
Among other things the hope is that the pilot will prevent individuals from making false allegations against law enforcement officers as well as make sure that police officers treat those they interact with respectfully. How the cameras will ultimately affect interactions between police officers and citizens remains to be seen.
