It is seen as the natural next step in an era when surveillance cameras peer down from buildings and citizens whip out cellphones to record police. On Monday, the Toronto Police Service will join the growing ranks of police forces adopting the latest law-enforcement technology when officers head out onto the streets, cameras rolling.

By the end of May, 100 Toronto police officers across the city will be wearing the increasingly popular policing tool, part of a nearly yearlong pilot project that was a recommendation of the Toronto Police’s use-of-force review that followed the 2013 police shooting of teenager Sammy Yatim.

The small recording device — attached high on the officers’ torso, near the lapel — has a big job: to increase public accountability and enhance trust, provide an unbiased account of public interactions, augment officer and public safety, protect police from unwarranted allegations of misconduct, and more.

“I feel like it’s a very exciting project; I think this has the potential to strengthen the policing profession, and I think it has the potential to strengthen our relations with the community,” said Staff Supt. Tom Russell at a news conference unveiling the cameras Friday.

Toronto police are following forces in Vancouver, Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and London that have already launched pilot projects experimenting with the police tool. The Calgary Police Service, one of the earliest adopters in Canada, has moved beyond the experimental stage and expanded the number of body cameras used by their officers from 50 in 2013 to 1,100 today.

But the lightning-fast expansion of the technology across Canada has also prompted a chorus of concern from privacy groups worried about everything from the tool being used as surveillance to potential privacy breaches inside private residences.

Earlier this year, federal and provincial information privacy commissioners issued a set of guidelines for law enforcement agencies, which included a plea for police services to seriously consider whether the technology is even necessary, considering the plethora of privacy concerns.

Russell, who is spearheading the body-worn camera project, assures that Toronto police have carefully considered the privacy implications of the cameras, in consultation with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

In cases where officers were invited into a private home, for instance, officers will turn off the camera when asked, although the camera stays on during an emergency call inside a home or while police are executing a search warrant.

Police will similarly keep the cameras rolling during interactions in public, though citizens will be told they are being recorded as soon as reasonably possible.

Each officer is in control of turning the recording device off and on, but Russell says the decision of what and when to record has been clearly spelled in procedures drafted to ensure an officer does not simply record when he or she pleases.

Every time an officer responds to a call for service or is investigating an individual during the course of their duties, the cameras are to be activated. The record button is also to be pushed when an officer questions and documents someone not suspected of a crime, a police practice known as “carding.” Officers will not activate their cameras during an informal conversation with a citizen.

If an interaction with the public is not recorded when it should have been, the officer may be subject to a discipline process, Russell said.

Before heading out onto the streets with the cameras, the officers participating in the pilot received training at Toronto Police College, which included running through real-world scenarios ranging from a domestic-dispute call to an impaired-driving stop to a regular traffic stop. Officers also “took the stand” in mock trials using the video.

Const. Neil Robinson, with the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit, said it may take some time for him and his colleagues to get used to the technology, but in many ways, the bodycams are nothing new.

“Officers like stability, they like the same thing, but overall it’s not going to change too much in how we do things,” he said. “When we’re in the community and people see us talking to somebody, there’s always another 10 people coming out with their cameras and recording us. So this is just another camera.”

Robinson said that having his own recording device is reassuring, since sometimes citizen video of police interactions may not capture the whole thing.

The cameras will be out in Toronto until the end of March 2016. The results of the experiment will be presented to the Toronto Police Services Board in June.

BODY-WORN CAMERA FAQS

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When will they be activated?

The cameras will always be on standby, and activated every time an officer responds to a call for service or is investigating an individual in the course of their duties.

Who will wear them?

100 officers from the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) Rapid Response Teams, from Traffic Services, from 55 Division’s Primary Response Unit and 43 Division’s Community Response Unit. Police said the variety of officers was chosen to ensure the project included a cross-section from the force, and chose cops who regularly interact with the public in a variety of ways.

How long will the video be stored?

Encrypted video will be downloaded at the end of each officer’s shift, held on a secure server at Toronto Police headquarters, and kept for a minimum of one year. However, if the video is required for an investigation it will be flagged and stored for longer.

How much does the pilot project cost?

The project has a budget of $500,000, including cameras, software, docking stations and storage. The pilot project is testing out three types of cameras to decide which one works best for the officers. Each camera costs between $600 and $1,000. There is currently no estimate as to what it will cost to have cameras roll out service-wide.

Can I see the video that an officer has made of me?

The video footage captured by police will be subject to Freedom of Information legislation, meaning citizens can make a request to access a copy.

When can a citizen ask for the camera to be turned off?

In a public place, if a citizen asks for the camera to be turned off, the officer will keep recording if the interaction is one he is required to record. In circumstances where citizens have invited the police into their home but don’t want the camera on, officers will turn it off. However, if officers are in a private home in an emergency situation or while conducting a search warrant, the cameras will be left on.

Do officers have the ability to alter or delete the video?

An officer cannot delete anything on the camera itself. Police say the camera is secure, the video is encrypted, and an officer goes to a docking station and downloads it to a server. The officer does not have the ability to alter, delete or edit the video.