A criminologist says there is “very strong support” in Surrey for police officers to wear body cameras.

Curt Griffiths and Stephanie Johnston, both PhDs in criminology, presented a summary of the results of a 2024 Surrey Police Service community consultation campaign at a Surrey Police Board meeting October 29.

Griffiths said there was “very strong support from stakeholder groups for officers to be worn and equipped with body cameras.”

“The consistent expression we use will bring accountability and transparency to the Surrey Police Department, but stakeholders also know that it also holds community residents accountable,” Griffiths told the board, with a “ warning”.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it’s a critical piece of information – especially in critical incidents, it’s a piece of evidence, a piece of documentation.”

While Delta police officers wear body camerass, Surrey Constabulary “is not doing that at the moment,” said Cpl. Sarbjit Sangha noted. “It hasn’t been offered to us yet.”

The RCMP is field testing cameras as part of a pilot project in Mission, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Prince George, Tofino, Ucluelet and Ahousaht as part of its Vision 150 modernization plan.

Police Chief Norm Lipinski, officer in charge of SPS, noted that body-worn cameras “have existed in North America for some time. Specifically in Canada, many agencies over the last 10 years have been moving in this direction and we’ve certainly discussed it here at SPS and we’ve done an “environmental scan” and that’s something we will present to the board of directors. administration and in 2025 I hope to have a pilot project.

“And it’s important to note that this is a pilot project,” Lipinski said at the board meeting. “Probably a handful of cameras, and then we’ll see how the policies work, and the mechanisms and retention, court preparation, all that comes into play. Generally speaking, the person dealing with the police officer, the police officer will inform the individual that this is being recorded on camera.

Deputy Police Chief Todd Matsumoto is responsible for developing the policy.

“We looked at policies from across Canada and in most cases there are provisions in the policies to notify the public that they are being recorded, but there are also provisions where this notification might not be practical to convey,” Matsumoto said, “so we “I’m going to explore this further in our policy. »

He said police officers are allowed to turn off the cameras “in certain circumstances which must be specified in policy and which will be available to the public, but also during training for police officers when it is appropriate and when it is not is not”.

The next board meeting is scheduled for November 27.