Manitoba RCMP have revealed which detachments will be the first to receive body cameras as part of a national rollout.
Steinbach will receive cameras on Friday. The Amaranth, Portage la Prairie and Treherne detachments will receive them on Dec. 4. The East St. Paul, Grand Marais and Selkirk detachments will receive them on Jan. 7. The St-Pierre-Jolys detachment will receive them on Jan. 22.
“The use of these cameras will be complemented by a digital evidence-management system that will be used to store and manage body-worn video,” RCMP said in a news release Wednesday.
ANDREW VAUGHAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
An RCMP officer wears a body camera in Bible Hill, N.S.
It is expected that more than 490 Manitoba RCMP officers working in 44 detachments will be equipped with the cameras by April. All other detachments throughout the province will receive cameras over the next 18 months.
“Body-worn cameras can help increase trust between police and the communities they serve because the video evidence collected will provide an independent, unbiased and objective way to capture interactions between the community and police officers,” the release said.
“It will also help resolve public complaints more quickly, and improve evidence gathering.”
RCMP officers will usually be wearing the cameras on their chest. The public will know it’s recording when a red light is flashing below the lens of the camera, the release said.
The RCMP announced Thursday that more than 10,000 cameras will be sent across the country in the next 18 months, with 90 per cent of front-line officers using them by this time next year.
The cameras will not be used for surveillance or settings with a high expectation of privacy, such as in washrooms, hospitals and treatment centres or during strip and body cavity searches.
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