Ottawa police to equip some officers with body-worn cameras by end of the year

Ottawa police step up patrols in wake of D.C. shooting

At least 50 Ottawa police officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras while on duty by the end of the year.

The Ottawa Police Services Board was told the service was preparing to launch a body-worn camera pilot project by the end of the year while discussing the 2024 use of force data report.

“There is a lot of different opinions about body-worn cameras, but part of the goal is to get a better picture of what occurred during an incident,” Chief Eric Stubbs told the board Monday night.

“It could be a use-of-force incident, it could be evidentiary and whatnot. In terms of having more tools to understand what occurred, there’s no doubt that body-worn cameras will help that. It’s accountability on both sides – it’s accountability for the member; it’s also accountability for the citizen as well. If they do make allegations, then we can check some of that on the body-worn camera.”

The Ottawa Police Service initially planned to launch a pilot project to equip officers with body cameras at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, but the rollout was delayed at least a year due to financial pressures.

Deputy Chief Steve Bell says while there is no recommendation from the Ottawa Police Service’s use of force committee on body-worn cameras yet, committee members have identified a “challenge” of not having any evidence of what happened at the time of the use of force involving an officer.

Bell said police are looking at deploying body-worn cameras on officers who respond to mental health and crisis intervention calls.

The 2024 use of force data showed officers displayed or used force against one or more individuals in 251 incidents in 2024, down from 261 incidents in 2023. A total of 316 people were involved in use of force incidents in 2024, according to police.

Staff say the most common incidents involving use of force were calls relating to weapons (16 per cent of calls), warrant execution (14 per cent), violent crime (12 per cent) and a person in crisis (12 per cent). The board was told that “handgun drawn” and “handgun pointed” represented the majority of use of force types by officers.

The report says racialized individuals made up 57 per cent of all people involved in use of force incidents in 2024, up 11 per cent from the year before.

Staff say the data shows police officers disproportionately used force against Black and Middle Eastern residents in 2024. Black and Middle Eastern people were 3.3 times more likely to be subject to police force compared to their population.

“Both Black and Middle Eastern subjects were over-represented in use of force incidents, relative to their share of Ottawa’s population (3.3 times),” the report said. “In considering when force was applied, 22 Black subjects and nine Middle Eastern subjects had force applied against them in 2024.”

“Indigenous subjects have been over-represented in use of force incidents in the past but were not over-represented in 2024, neither as subjects (11) nor as those against whom force was applied (5).”

The data shows while White residents make up 68 per cent of Ottawa’s population, they were involved in 43 per cent of use of force incidents with police in 2024. Black residents account for eight per cent of the population and were involved in 26 per cent of use of force incidents. Middle Eastern people were involved in 20 per cent of force incidents, while making up six per cent of the population.

According to the report, handguns were drawn 130 times by officers in 2024, pointed 108 times and a firearm was discharged twice. Officers displayed a conducted energy weapon 82 times in 2024 and deployed the weapon 49 times.

Police services in Ontario are required to submit a use-of-force report when an officer draws a handgun in the presence of a member of the public, points a firearm at a person or discharges a weapon, uses a weapon on another person, draws, displays or discharges a conducted energy weapon and uses physical force that results in an injury requiring medical attention.