Vancouver City Council approves body-worn cameras for police officers

After some back and forth, councillor Lenny Zhou’s first motion to bring body-worn cameras to the VPD has passed.

Not all Vancouver councillors were on board, though, and the reasons why they were against it varied.

Three members of Council were absent from the vote, three voted in opposition, and five voted in favour, including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim.

My 1st motion passed. I’m proud of bringing it forward because it’ll improve public safety, enhance accountability & transparency. It’s evidence based! Grateful for all my fellow councillors regardless the vote, city staffs & people who brought it to our attention during election pic.twitter.com/313RiiX4EZ

— Lenny Zhou 🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@LennyNanZhou) December 8, 2022

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Councillor Pete Fry raised concerns about costs, while councillor Christine Boyle said that there wasn’t enough data to support the decision to approve them. She offered amendments to the original motion, but city council voted in opposition to the amended motion.

The motion that has now been approved calls for bringing body-worn cameras to the VPD by 2025.

“Given that the RCMP is currently rolling out a nationwide BWC program, along with the provincial government’s endorsement of BWC for police departments in the province, the opportunity for Mayor and Council to support and otherwise take steps to enable the VPD to implement BWC for all frontline and patrol officers by 2025, is timely and warranted,” reads the motion.

One point revealed in the motion is that although VPD has 1,348 sworn officers, only 800 are assigned to frontline duties. In addition, the motion notes that not all officers are on duty simultaneously, and only those on duty would be equipped.

The motion also states that VPD Chief Adam Palmer is in support of the BWC program as a provincial policing standard as a tool to help strengthen public trust and confidence in the police.

The motion adds that the VPD has over a million contacts with the public every year, which includes around 240,000 calls for service every year, or 650 calls per day.

Vancouver police recently asked the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Board to approve an 11% budget hike for next year. Still, it would likely need to see another hike the following year to allow for the cost of implementing body cams.