Frontline RCMP officers in this province will begin donning body-worn cameras as early as Monday.
The rollout will begin for officers working out of the Holyrood and Ferryland detachments first, followed by Placentia and Whitbourne the following week.
And they should be mounted on the chests of Mounties in Harbour Grace and Bay Roberts by the end of the year.
The plan for this province was announced yesterday, following the national rollout on Thursday.
The head of the RCMP for Newfoundland and Labrador, Assistant Commissioner Pat Cahill, said the goal is for all of the roughly 280 frontline officers in the province to be outfitted with body cams by July of next year.
Photo via RCMP
Cahill said each camera costs about $3,000 a year per member, but he expects them to be a natural deterrent for criminals, while ensuring accountability and transparency for officers.
“The body-worn video collected will provide an independent, unbiased and objective way to capture interactions between the community and our police officers,” he said. “It provides a first-person view of what a police officer encounters, oftentimes in a highly dynamic and tense situation.”
Justice Minister Bernard Davis, meanwhile, hinted body cams for the RNC may not be far behind.
“I don’t want to speak about exactly how quickly that will move, but it is moving,” said Davis, adding that discussions are ongoing. “The RNCA as well as the Chief of Police have regularly chatted with me about the benefits of body-worn cameras. We have two fantastic police forces in this province and we’re not going to equip one without equipping the other.”
