Toronto Police have recently outraged their city with the shooting of a local teenager. The encounter between Sammy Yatim and the Police was recorded by a number of bystanders on their mobile phones, and was quickly spread over the internet.
From the perspective of the bystanders, questions have been raised as to the severe reaction from the Police which involved shooting the teenager 14 times, and has led to a great distrust in the local authorities.
Further questions are being asked as to why the Police are not using body worn video (BWV), since the public has remained unaware of the Police’s perspective of the incident. Reveal Media’s RS3-SX cameras are currently being trialled by both Amherstburg and Edmonton Police in Canada to deal with conflicts such as this.
In the UK, Metropolitan Police boroughs have testified that “Our complaints against Police wearing the camera has dropped to negligible”, due to the fact that the severity of the situation is revealed by the camera footage. With the benefits of Reveal Media’s camera’s extending beyond reducing complaints against officers, the Canadian Police will perhaps become more pro-active in the implementation of this seasoned technology.