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The scene is chaotic, but the results are clear. While several officers appear to be acting reasonably, even restrained, one officer deliberately and repeatedly assaulted the man. The victim, who was Indigenous, sustained broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He ran because he had taken drugs earlier in the day.

The combination of body-worn microphone and dashcam, even if it was suddenly switched off (the judge called that “concerning and troubling,”) helped convict the officer on two counts of assault. The other officers involved were acquitted.

It wasn’t long after the trial, in 2018, that Calgary police finally moved forward on a plan to equip more of its officers with body-worn cameras, upgrading from the microphones. “It’s supporting what they do every day and it’s, at times, a calming measure. It’s doing everything we wanted it to,” then-Chief Steve Barlow told the Calgary Sun last year.

These body-worn cameras, usually affixed to the officer’s lapel, have now been rolled-out for all members of the police service, and the new chief says they are even considering publicly releasing the footage in high-profile cases, such as an officer-involved shooting that occurred in June.

It looks like a coup for police accountability. But Calgary is a rarity in Canada. While the use of body-worn cameras has become increasingly common in the United States, police departments in Canada have been far less supportive. Newspapers have run stories on pilot project after pilot project, signalling police departments’ interest in exploring the technology. Far less coverage has been dedicated to the decisions to, in most cases, forgo equipping officers with the cameras.