Police body cameras coming to Montreal

Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet says he wants to equip some officers with body cameras in the near future.

"There's a pilot project that's going to take place in the next few months," Pichet told CBC News.

"We have to decide which unit is going wear the cameras, how many cameras we'll try."

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Pichet, who took over the top post in August,said a committee has been set up to work out the details of the pilot project.

Montreal has been exploring the possibility for years.

YvesFrancoeur, president of the Montreal Police Brotherhood, has already come out in favour of the idea,sayingbody cameras would providea better picture of what happened in a confrontation.

"What you're going tosee onYouTubeis from the moment of the arrest,but we never have what happened before,"Francoeur said earlier this year.

He said aggressive behaviourtoward officers droppedonce people knew they were being filmed.

Mayor DenisCoderrehas also endorsed the idea.

Several police forces in Canada, the United States and Europe have already introduced body cameras or implemented pilot projects.

In a report earlier this year,Canada's privacy commissionerflagged ahost of privacy issues that have arisen as more and more police forces consider attaching video cameras to their officers' uniforms.

There is some evidence that use of body-worn cameras by policereduces both complaints against police and the use of force by front-line officers.