New tech coming to force
Every Peacekeeper in the territory will soon be equipped with body cameras, following a decision made by the police force’s board just before the holidays.
It’s not just cameras that were approved for purchase, but an entire package of new gear aimed at modernizing the way the Kahnawake Peacekeepers police the territory, chief Dwayne Zacharie said.
Cruiser-mounted automatic license plate readers, new tasers, and software that’ll produce automatic transcriptions of audio and video are also included within the roughly $1 million package.
“The purchase that we’re doing is about putting more service into the community,” Zacharie said, mentioning the new software that’ll allow officers to file reports quicker, saving them hours of time. “It'll free up time so they can be on the road.”
The police chief said he first started thinking about integrating body cameras into the force after witnessing the growth of the defund the police movement over the pandemic. He then spent years looking at how other police departments make use of them before bringing forward a proposal to the police service board last month.
“For us, every single day is a new day to build trust with the community,” Zacharie said. “What we’re doing, in this day and age, is leveraging the kind of technology that’s available in order to do that, and to do it better.”
The body cameras go beyond promoting professionalism within the force, he said. Having the entirety of each interaction filmed will also encourage community members to moderate their own behaviour too, he said.
Council chief Ryan Montour, who sits as a non-voting member on the police services board, described the newly approved gear as “an officer safety package.”
“If people know in the future Peacekeepers are video recording every interaction, they’re really going to be on their best behaviour,” said Montour, also the lead on public safety.
The integration of the cameras in policing will also obviously help in their officers ability to collect evidence.
“It’s kind of hard to argue with video and that’s going to help the Peacekeepers’ work within the community,” Montour said.
That kind of footage isn’t just relevant to criminal investigations and proceedings either, he said. It could also come into use in the instance a community member files a complaint against a Peacekeeper. Those complaints are studied within the force, either by the police chief or by the ethics committee connected to the police services board.
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The hope is to have every one of their Peacekeepers equipped with the cameras by the spring, Zacharie said. A policy is also in the works over how exactly they’ll be used, touching on when they have to be turned on and when recording can stop.
“They shouldn’t be turning off the cameras when there’s an interaction with individuals,” the police chief assured.
The purchase of the new technology was made possible through over $1.8 million in funding the police force received from Public Safety Canada last April. That stabilization funding was provided in addition to the funding the Peacekeepers already receive on an annual basis from the federal government through its funding agreement.
