RCMP to test uniform-mounted cameras
Body-worn device could improve 'transparency' for officers and suspects
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Get out of the car with your hands up. You're on candid camera.
Liberal senators recommended this week that individual Mounties be equipped with miniature, uniform-mounted video cameras to enhance "transparency" in the problem-plagued force.
Now, the Star has learned that at least 20 police departments and detachments across Canada are already using the devices.
The RCMP says officers in detachments in Kelowna, B.C., and Moncton, N.B., (Codiac region) have been fitted with the uniform-mounted cameras as part of a pilot project that is also testing Taser-mounted cameras, made by Arizona-based Taser International.
The six-month pilot project was launched in January using VIDMICs, the trademarked name of a body-worn video and audio-recording device, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Greg Cox.
Magdy Rafla, of MD Charlton Co. Ltd., the Canadian sales representative for VIDMIC, said the device has also been bought by several Canadian municipal forces, military police and private security firms.
Rafla said the device, which costs $850, has been used by nightclub "bouncers" and "they love it."
In all, Rafla estimates 225 devices are in use, and if the RCMP testing approves them for wider distribution to its members, the force has told the company it would acquire them for all Mounties – in what would be a huge contract for the Victoria-based company.
"(The RCMP) are trying 10 of them right now across Canada. Once they go ahead, they'll be for every RCMP officer. ... That's the plan," Rafla said in a telephone interview from Victoria.
Rafla said other buyers include police forces in Provost, Alta., St. Albert, Alta., and Merritt, B.C., as well as the Department of National Defence. His client list also includes B.C. Ferries, Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital security services and some fire departments.
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Body-worn device could improve 'transparency' for officers and suspects
Article Link
Get out of the car with your hands up. You're on candid camera.
Liberal senators recommended this week that individual Mounties be equipped with miniature, uniform-mounted video cameras to enhance "transparency" in the problem-plagued force.
Now, the Star has learned that at least 20 police departments and detachments across Canada are already using the devices.
The RCMP says officers in detachments in Kelowna, B.C., and Moncton, N.B., (Codiac region) have been fitted with the uniform-mounted cameras as part of a pilot project that is also testing Taser-mounted cameras, made by Arizona-based Taser International.
The six-month pilot project was launched in January using VIDMICs, the trademarked name of a body-worn video and audio-recording device, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Greg Cox.
Magdy Rafla, of MD Charlton Co. Ltd., the Canadian sales representative for VIDMIC, said the device has also been bought by several Canadian municipal forces, military police and private security firms.
Rafla said the device, which costs $850, has been used by nightclub "bouncers" and "they love it."
In all, Rafla estimates 225 devices are in use, and if the RCMP testing approves them for wider distribution to its members, the force has told the company it would acquire them for all Mounties – in what would be a huge contract for the Victoria-based company.
"(The RCMP) are trying 10 of them right now across Canada. Once they go ahead, they'll be for every RCMP officer. ... That's the plan," Rafla said in a telephone interview from Victoria.
Rafla said other buyers include police forces in Provost, Alta., St. Albert, Alta., and Merritt, B.C., as well as the Department of National Defence. His client list also includes B.C. Ferries, Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital security services and some fire departments.
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