Frequently touted as a way to decrease police brutality and civilian complaints against officers, body-worn cameras are fast being adopted by police forces across North America — including in Toronto, where a year-long pilot project has just wrapped up.

But new research out of the University of Toronto suggests the growing number of police services testing or adopting the technology should wait before investing in a costly tool whose merits, researchers say, have yet to be proven.

“It’s not a magic bullet,” said Erick Laming, a University of Toronto PhD criminology student who is studying the efficacy of the cameras alongside PhD student Jihyun Kwon and criminologist Scot Wortley.

“This technology could be amazing, it could be awesome. But jumping the gun and doing it blindly is not the way to go,” Laming said. “We have to slow down and look at it more comprehensively.”

Presented this week at the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Calgary, the U of T team’s research involved a review of studies done to date on the effect of police body-worn cameras. Their findings suggest there has been little research proving the tool increases police accountability — perceived to be one of the biggest benefits of the camera.

For example, the best known and oft-cited body-worn camera study, out of Rialto, California showed a marked decline in both use-of-force incidents (down 60 per cent) and complaints about officers (down 88 per cent).

But the sample size was small — just 23 officers wore the cameras — and a closer review of the data shows both civilian complaints and use-of-force incidents were already on the decline; use of force incidents were already declining at nearly a rate of 20 per cent annually.

Another study out of Mesa, Arizona claims to have found a 75 per cent reduction in civilian complaints following the introduction of body-worn cameras, but the numbers are so small as to be virtually meaningless: complaints fell from four to one.

Considering that many police services across North America are struggling to cut costs — including in Toronto, where the budget has ballooned to over $1 billion — more study needs to be done to prove the cameras are worth the cost. Ideally, that study should be done with independent researchers teaming up with police agencies.

“It can’t be just internal, because most times its faulty methodology being employed,” Laming said.

About one third of police departments in the United States already have body worn cameras, and in Canada, pilot studies have been launched or completed in Toronto, Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Calgary and Montreal.

The Toronto pilot project, which wrapped up last month, involved 100 officers from across the city, and was a recommendation of the Toronto Police’s use-of-force review that followed the 2013 police shooting of teenager Sammy Yatim.

Since the project wrapped up April 1, the force has been drafting a report on the cameras that will provide recommendations on the future use by officers.

It’s due to be presented to Toronto police chief Mark Saunders at the end of June, and to the Toronto police board soon after.

The report “will consider all aspects of the pilot project, including technology, procedures and training. Throughout the pilot, the Service has been gathering feedback from the community and the officers involved in the project. Their input will also be considered as part of the review,” said a statement from Toronto police.

That report from Toronto police is “highly anticipated,” said Laming; because Toronto police is the largest municipal police service in the country, other forces will be taking a cue from the report.

The researchers hope to get some raw data from the Toronto study and further their research into the efficacy of the tool.

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“We are not either for or against the adaptation of the body worn cameras, but what we are saying is that it’s not the be-all and end-all,” Kwon said.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca