This is the second instalment in a series on the campaign to have RCMP officers use body-worn cameras in Nunavut.
Navigating bureaucratic processes for body cameras to become a reality in Nunavut required widespread support. Former senator Dennis Patterson credits Amanda Jones, the RCMP's chief superintendent for Nunavut at the time, for playing a pivotal role.
She “believed that the implementation of body-worn cameras would improve police community relations in Nunavut, and [she] set the tone for all the senior officers in Ottawa and Nunavut who believed that there were times when exposing the reality of situations faced by RCMP members occasionally face in community policing would help the courts and the public understand the challenges faced by police in small communities dealing with very tense situations," Patterson said. "There was also a willingness in the police to expose their members to scrutiny to monitor and perhaps, at times, critically review police behaviour and actions to ensure that best practices were applied at all times.”
Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak Lightstone also expressed appreciation for the police force, particularly the Iqaluit RCMP, with whom he has worked closely for a number of years.
“The RCMP play a crucial role in providing public safety. They work hard and do their best. They also respond to a very high level of calls.
“It is important to note,” continued Lightstone, “that Nunavut RCMP are exposed to very high levels of stress and violence that does take a toll on an individual…I’m not trying to excuse excessive force, I just think it is likely that it is likely correlated.
"I just would like the public to take that into consideration… The RCMP play a critical role in addressing the rates of violence."
Patterson said it took the collective efforts of many in the territory to move the initiative through the federal government. GN deputy minister Stephen Mansell and former MLA and Pond Inlet mayor David Qamaniq played prominent roles, he recalled.
Then-federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair eventually made a "remarkable" announcement in the Senate of Canada that Nunavut would become the first jurisdiction in Canada to pilot body-worn cameras for the RCMP, Patterson said.
Prior to that announcement, the parties involved tackled important policy questions, including how to respect citizens’ privacy, especially in their homes; the protocol RCMP members would employ in turning on and off their body-worn cameras and consultation and communication with the public. Technical staff from the RCMP in Ottawa answered questions about how body-worn cameras would work in the cold, how to store information in communities with limited bandwidth and the use of body-worn camera footage in court.
The project required the development of protocols and policies for the RCMP and the purchase of equipment that would work in Nunavut's sometimes frigid temperatures.
The GN was concerned that the federal government did not have the financial means to support the implementation of this project, according to Patterson. In the Senate, he asked the federal government to shoulder the cost of this new initiative.
The GN, the RCMP's V Division and the Government of Canada agreed to a body-worn camera pilot project in Iqaluit during the fall of 2020.
“The goal of the pilot project was to evaluate processes and best practices with existing technology in remote regions and to engage the community on perceptions and satisfaction with the technology,” stated Robin Percival, media relations representative for the RCMP.
Andrew Blackadar, chief superintendent of the Nunavut RCMP, recalled that engaging the local media and working directly with the Inuit community were key parts of the rollout of the pilot project. He said community members were “eager to understand” why the police would adopt body cameras and what it would mean.
“[Nunavut RCMP] did a lot of very good work on relationships and rolling out the cameras, and I think that was paramount... there was a positive response from the community... I think it’s one of these de-escalation techniques, that when a police person arrives, a person notices [the cameras] and tends to become more compliant,” said Blackadar.
The main goal of the body cameras is “increased transparency, while also providing a first-person view of what a police officer encounters, oftentimes in highly dynamic and tense situations,” Percival stated. “The objectives of the body-worn camera project are strengthening transparency, accountability and public trust, resolving public complaints more quickly, improving interactions between the public and police and improving evidence gathering. This initiative will see more than 10,000 cameras rolled out across the country when rollout is complete.”
