Toronto police refuse to buy body cams

CANADA/TECHNOLOGY - There's a new piece of technology many police in North America are now adopting: Body cams. Like the cameras mounted inside police cruisers, these cameras are designed to capture everything the police officer sees and hears as they go about their daily duties.

The devices are usually clipped to their lapels, vests, hats, glasses or even bike helmets and acts as a valuable way to gain additional evidence if there is ever a question about the details concerning events.

Its also considered a valuable way to prevent lawsuits against the police by showing the courts exactly what the police are doing and how they did it.

For the past 3 years the devices have become increasingly popular with police forces around the globe, allowing them to both acquire evidence which can be used later and to force police officers to keeping a strict moral code, making them more accountable and less likely to resort to police brutality when they know they're being watched.

The device does raise some issues when it comes to privacy, but when asked most police officers say they'd be willing to wear the devices.

Toronto police have already invested heavity in CCTV and cameras inside patrol cars, but spokespeople for the Toronto police say they won't be trying out body cams any time soon because they don't have enough money.

Nonsense. The Toronto police budget has become bloated in recent years. They have tonnes of money. What are they wasting it on?

Meanwhile police across Canada in British Columbia, Alberta and other locations are already adopting body cams. They've already been used to identify suspects in multiple cases in Canada.

The key concern of the public is who has access to video and audio once its been recorded. Allowing individual officers to go back and erase video for example sounds like a big no-no. There has to be protocols in place for the safe keeping of the audio-video data so it can't be edited or deleted, and also making sure the video isn't leaked to the public without consent.

Police officers need to be held accountable for their actions. Civilians are expected to be held accountable, but its more important that the law enforcement doesn't become corrupt.