Prosecutors in Fredericton, N.B., have a relatively new tool at their disposal as they build a murder case in connection with last week’s mass shooting.
The city’s police force has been experimenting with body-worn cameras and a responding officer was wearing one. (It has not been made clear if it was one of the two officers killed in the incident.)
This technology’s usefulness in evidence-gathering is one of the reasons its increasing use by police forces is, in the main, a good thing. The enhancement of accountability is another. While there are mixed assessments of body cameras' effectiveness in encouraging responsible police conduct, more documentation of their interactions is preferable to less.
But as body cameras become increasingly ubiquitous — with police services in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary among the many to test them — there is also new cause to make sure their deployment is treated with caution.
Last weekend, a researcher at an Australian cybersecurity firm exposed some alarming technical vulnerabilities, owing largely to a lack of adequate cryptography. In a presentation at DefCon, an annual hacker convention in Las Vegas, Josh Mitchell displayed how footage (and related metadata such as time and location) from cameras being marketed to law enforcement could be deleted or altered by digital attackers. He also showed how, because many of the cameras have WiFi capabilities, they could endanger officers by allowing them to be tracked.
Some models appear to be more secure than others, which underscores the need for discretion in their procurement. And as the technology evolves, current security bugs should be ironed out.
That evolution, though, could also raise other concerns, particularly around civil liberties. Body-camera manufacturers have already raised the prospect of implementing real-time facial recognition. While such capabilities are not imminent, it’s not too early to begin a discussion of what limitations should be placed on cameras' usage - whether, for instance, we would ever want police able to instantly identify whoever crosses their path.
With the right standards in place, body cameras can bolster the administration of justice — as we may see in the aftermath of Fredericton’s tragedy. But this form of surveillance itself requires a watchful eye.