Iqaluit bylaw officers have been wearing body cameras for years

As calls for the RCMP to begin using body cameras increase across the country, some Nunavummiut may be surprised to learn that bylaw officers in Iqaluit have been wearing body cameras on duty for years.

On Tuesday Iqaluit city council moved a motion to encourage the territory's RCMP to start wearing body cameras. 

Councillor Sheila Flaherty wanted to know if municipal enforcement should also be wearing cameras. 

The city's chief enforcement officer, Rod Mugford, told the council that they already do. The bylaw office has had the cameras for five years and have been wearing them for two. 

"The cameras are there to protect the community as a whole and to protect the officers as well," said Mugford at the council meeting. 

Nunavut MLAs, its MP and its senator have recently renewed calls for the use of body cameras by the RCMP in Nunavut, where a bystander recorded footage of police using a car door to knock down an intoxicated man in Kinngait just last week.

Nunavut RCMP have told CBC that there are technical barriers to having body cameras in the territory, such as storage. 

But Mugford says they haven't had a problem with the cameras, and they still work even during the cold winter months.

Mugford said the main reason they have body cameras is because they do traffic stops which are considered a "high risk interaction." 

"You don't know who is in the vehicle, you don't know what's in the vehicle," he said. 

Mugford said the cameras are on for the officers' whole shift but the cameras do not record audio until the officer turns it on. Anytime an officer interacts with the public they have to turn on the audio, according to an internal policy, he said. 

Mugford said this allows for transparency between them and the public. 

"[If] someone says an officer did something inappropriately or comments were made ... the enforcement department can review that footage and determine if the complaint is valid," said Mugord. 

Mugford says at the end of a shift, officers have to plug in their cameras and upload the footage on a server they contract out called Evidence.com. 

"It is what all police forces, basically, in North America are using right now," said Mugford.

He says they pay for the service and the storage of the footage on website, so they don't need to worry about storage space.

"We cannot manipulate that footage, we cannot delete footage, we have no control over that footage whatsoever," he said. 

Mugford says if they need a video, they request the footage and are then able to send it to an external police agency or anyone else authorized to request it.