Toronto police will be holding a show and tell on Monday to reveal more details about body-worn cameras that officers are now required to wear.
Deputy Shawna Coxon, Superintendent Michael Barsky, and members of 23 Division will be on hand this morning to demonstrate the technology and answer questions.
Toronto police began wearing body cameras last week after they were approved by the Toronto Police Services Board earlier this month.
A plan approved by the board will see the service buy 2,350 cameras at a cost of $34.1 million over five years.
The aim of the cameras is to increase transparency and accountability, amid several recent protests calling for the defunding of the police and even abolishing the police.
Mayor John Tory spoke to CP24 this morning and said body-worn cameras are the right thing to do.
This is something that is going to improve police accountability and weve had lots of evidence presented to us at the police board as well to the effect that its going to be very efficient, Tory said.
Tory said the investment in body-worn cameras will also pay off in the long run.
So for the expenditure of the $30 million over the five years youre also going to get a substantial reduction in the amount of time that police officers have to take notes and transcribe notes and do things like that because you will have a video recording.
Most of the cost for the cameras are for cloud-based storage space to keep the hundreds of hours of video that will be generated by the cameras each day.
As body-worn cameras are rolled out among the service, Tory said the next steps are to establish rules to ensure the cameras are always operating while officers are on duty.
The show and tell of the body-worn cameras is set to start at 10 a.m.read more
Toronto police to unveil new body-worn cameras in show and tell – CP24 Toronto’s Breaking News
