All of Toronto’s 3,200 frontline officers should wear body cameras, though the “major challenge,” according to a new police report, would be cost at a time when the service is being asked to slash its budget.

On Thursday, the Toronto Police Service released its evaluation of a nearly year-long pilot project — from May 2015 to March this year — that saw 85 officers across the city wearing video cameras on the front of their uniforms.

The report, presented to the civilian oversight board, found the pilot project had shortcomings. The battery life of the cameras lasted up to only half of an officer’s 10-hour shift, corrupting video files when the cameras stopped in the middle of recordings.

The sample size was also statistically so small, it was difficult to draw any conclusions on key issues, such as whether the existence of the cameras would cause the number of public complaints against officers to drop or whether officers would file fewer use of force reports.

Nevertheless, the service’s review showed that “while the technology used did not meet all of the Service’s needs, body-worn cameras do provide the unbiased, independent account of police/community interactions, as expected,” according to a TPS news release.

At police headquarters at the board’s annual meeting, Mayor John Tory said he and the other members hadn’t had time to read the report, which was a surprise added-on item on the agenda. The board put the discussion, and deputations, over to its next meeting in October.

But Tory said while he’s “generally in favour of the concept” of expanding the use of body-worn cameras, the board needs a lot more information before it will approve a police request even to solicit bids from technology companies interested in supplying the devices.

“This is clearly a major, major devotion of police resources to just manage the video information,” he said. “We’re talking about one of the biggest things we would ever undertake.”

At the same time, a Tory-appointed task force, formed to modernize and rein TPS spending, is recommending the service cut about $100 million from its budget over three years.

The proposals call on the force to downsize by several hundred officers though the more effective deployment of existing resources and innovative technology, as well as the closing of some divisions. A hiring and promotional freeze is already in effect.

Salaries and benefits make up 89 per cent of the force’s $1-billion-plus budget.

To outfit 3,200 officers with body cameras would cost an estimated $85 million over 10 years for the cameras and digital video storage. That doesn’t including the enormous administrative costs involved, according to the police — during the pilot project, officers spent up to two hours a shift managing and cataloguing the videotaped information, time away from policing the streets.

Insp. Mike Barsky said that in the future, the service could rely on cheaper online cloud-based storage that wasn’t available in Canada when the pilot project was up and running.

“Now cloud is here so let’s have a look at that and see what cost savings can occur,” he said.

He told the board that if the service ends up going forward, it must do so cautiously, noting that the Calgary Police Service has had a number of setbacks with its cameras due to technology failure.

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“This is something that we have to manage very carefully,” Barksy said.

Chief Mark Saunders agreed if there is a move to service-wide implementation it’s essential “to get the right product that will give us the best results. I think it’s going to be a win for not just law enforcement but the public as well.”