North Bay's Police Chief is confident that a delayed Police Body Worn Camera project will get its start this summer with the North Bay Police Service.
"I do hope by summer time like I mean June or July that we have our first few cameras rolled out and we can start understanding what it means for the workload of the service of vetting the information, providing information for disclosure purposes, and also for freedom of information requests and better understand how we are going to work with the provincial government on the digital evidence management project that they are doing to host a lot of our data," said Tod after Tuesday's March Police Board meeting at North Bay Police Headquarters on Princess Street.
See related: Body Worn Camera project getting community support
See related: Police Body Worn Camera project delayed into 2022
The service is adding body-worn cameras but will not be implementing any dash camera on police cruisers.
Tod believes the new technology will be good for both sides.
"It will be for the members and the public," Tod noted.
"I think it provides an opportunity for accountability as to what our officers are doing in the community and it also provides us with a better ability to collect evidence on scene when we are investigating crimes or other incidents involving people in our community. It also provides an opportunity for us to collect information in regards to the actions of people in our community so we can better equip ourselves with tools and training to deal with those critical issues in our community."
With all that information will require someone to look over all that digital information. That is where a new digital management team will come into play.
"So we are going to create a digital evidence management unit and fortunately enough we have been funded enough for two civilian positions in this year's budget to start that process," explained Tod.
"They will look at video footage every single day; recordings every single day from the officers that wear them, and we will identify that information based on the incidents they have been asked to respond to or one where the officers themselves have marked that we have to take note of and record for purposes of court or rather information that is required by someone else."
