Data from the pilot project shows a positive responses from both residents and officers to Guelph police wearing body worn cameras.
The rollout of the cameras to all eligible officers is now complete and on Thursday, the results of the pilot project were shared with the Guelph Police Services Board.
The report, Evaluation of the Guelph Police Service’s Body Worn Cameras Pilot Project, shows civilian and sworn officers tended to believe that cameras will contribute to holding officers appropriately accountable, believe that BWCs will improve policing and believe that BWCs will be a useful tool for police.
The report was written by Alana Saulnier, an associate professor of sociology at Queen's University, who was in attendance for the meeting.
The document outlines the findings from the assigning and activation of BWCs by uniform officers between September 2020 and November 2021. It analyzed 4,234 calls for service during shifts where officers activated BWCs in 2,471 (58 per cent) of calls.
Jonathan Green, manager of IT at GPS, said the pilot project involved various crimes and consulted both internal and external parties.
“We didn’t shy away from asking the hard questions from our community,” said Green during the meeting.
The report notes most participants supported police adoption of BWCs in findings from traffic stops experiment (84 per cent), media experiment (72 per cent) and vulnerable victims surveys (87 per cent).
When asked if they would support increasing the police budget to pay for BWCs, 72 per cent of participants in the traffic stops experiment and 73 per cent of participants in the media experiment supported it.
In a survey from the report, both civilian and sworn members also supported the use of cameras.
To read the full report, click here.
Since the roll out has been completed, Green said there have been no complaints from GPS members about the cameras.
“It has been nothing but tremendously well-received, as to how the implementation has gone, and where we are today."
Chief Gord Cobey said the data will be 'transformational' as GPS moves forward with their services.
“Your research, which is extremely comprehensive, really gave us the data that we needed and the board needed to make the decisions required, as well as the investments required,” said Cobey to Sauliner.
