RNC gearing up to wear body cameras in 2027

Body-worn cameras are coming to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Starting in 2027, RNC police officers will be equipped with body cams, according to the provincial justice minister. Body-worn cameras do enhance accountability, transparency, as well as public trust. And those are all very important goals to aspire to. The minister of justice says that the RNC is already using a new system that will facilitate body cam footage. Right now, we've seen phase one rollout with respect to the RNC, and that was with the Digital Evidence Management System, the DEM system. And we see 400 officers across the province that are now utilizing and are active users. Conway Ottenheimer says the province is spending $500,000 on a digital evidence management system and $900,000 for the cameras. The minister has not said how much it will cost to keep the cameras in operation. This professor of criminology says storage is the biggest cost of body cams long-term. The costs up front are really just the beginning of this, and so it's definitely going to be millions of dollars in investment long-term and down the road, and potentially multi-millions, to be able to manage and store all this data. She also says there's not enough evidence to suggest that body cams are effective in increasing police accountability. Right now the research is really inconclusive, and that's really important to understand, is we're investing a lot of money and a lot of potential resources into something that's going to be a high cost to potentially low, no middle reward. The Minister of Justice has not set a specific deadline for body-worn cameras, but residents of this province should expect to see RNC officers wearing body cams sometime next year. John Harris, CBC News, St. John's.