HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. — As of March 4, town enforcement officers in Happy Valley-Goose Bay will be wearing body cameras. The town council voted to bring in the technology at the Feb. 25 meeting, for each community constable and animal control officer.
“What the body camera does is enhance the safety of the enforcement officers but also creates accountability and transparency,” Community Constable Larry Baker told SaltWire. “One of the important elements of this is it protects the general public as much as it does any enforcement official that wears it.”
Baker said there have been cameras on their enforcement vehicles for years but it only records a line of sight so it has limitations. This will ensure that all interactions of the public are recorded, he said, for the protection of both.
“It creates accountability and transparency in enforcement,” Baker said. “We want to be accountable and be transparent.”
Body cameras are a familiar sight on enforcement officers in many places, both in Canada and internationally, but not in Newfoundland and Labrador. Neither police force operating in the province uses them and only one other municipality uses them. The rationale for not using them on larger forces is cost and the time required to go through all the data. For a small group like in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, neither of those limitations are an issue.
Jackie Compton Hobbes, town councilor and head of the Community Services Committee, said the cameras cost less than $500 total for the few officers they have and agreed with Baker they would increase accountability.
“It’s for the safety of staff and the public. It’s kind of eliminates he said, she said. Now there will be actual video records of interactions with the public. We fully support it.”
