6 Fredericton police officers set to wear body cameras

The Fredericton Police Force is looking at introducing the use of body cameras for its officers.

Deputy Chief Martin Gaudet said the force will be running a 90-day pilot project in the next six to eight weeks.

"We tried it before and the issue we had is what do we do with this video and audio stuff? Where do we put it?" he said.

"Where do we store it that's practical, that can be redacted and that can be tracked so that we know where the videos have gone, who's touched them, who's redacted them, that's the biggest piece."

Gaudet said the force is using Axon, a company that makes smart public safety technology and weapons.

"We already use their Tasers and we have video on our Tasers as well, so we're using one company, pushing all those videos to the cloud," he said.

"We're told by the company... that (the cloud is) secure. Our corporate IT is working on it, they feel that the portal is secure."

6 officers will wear cameras

Gaudet said it's hard to say what the cost of running the operation will be at this point. The cameras, he said, are about $400 to $500 and the 90-day pilot project is free. After that the cost depends on how much space the police force needs to store its videos.

Six officers will be issued the body cameras, which they will attach either to their chests or shoulders. He estimates they'll take two to three hours of footage a shift.

"The benefit is to capture officer-public interaction, or part of the interaction. The audio and video will be part of the package in any investigation," he said.

That audio and video will be subject to New Brunswick's Right to Information, like other public records.

Coun. Steven Chase, chair of the Public Safety Committee, saidhe's in favour of the pilot project.

"This is one more tool in our ability to improve policing. It's not perfect but it's a major leap forward in providing accurate information about situations."