Officers with the Pembina Valley RCMP are some of the latest in Manitoba to be equipped with body worn cameras.
In November, Manitoba RCMP announced that by this April, more than 490 officers in 44 of the province's detachments would be sporting the devices. Pembina Valley RCMP members received theirs last week Thursday.
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As Sergeant Darcy Thiessen explained, the cameras will be visible and record officer interactions with the public.
"They'll be visible when you're dealing with an RCMP member. You'll see a lot of blinking lights - green, which means it's on and red, which means it's recording."
Sgt. Thiessen noted, the cameras will be used when officers respond to a call for service or interact with the public as part of an investigation. And there are some scenarios where they won't be used.
"If we just meet someone on the street and we're just having a casual conversation then, no. The camera will be on, but it won't be recording."
According to Sgt. Thiessen, there's been a lot of positive feedback from members in other detachments that have been wearing the cameras for a few months now. RCMP officers in Treherne were among the first in our province to start using body-worn cameras, beginning December 4th.
Overall, Sgt. Thiessen is pleased with the move to incorporate body worn cameras into their arsenal of tools and believes they will add another layer of safety for officers and the public.
"When you're dealing with different situations, there's different versions of events that happen," he said. "This won't capture everything, but it will definitely capture a lot of what the police officer is seeing, the interaction with the public and what they are seeing and hearing as well."
According to Manitoba RCMP, the cameras will also help resolve public complaints more quickly and improve evidence gathering.