Supporters see body-worn cameras as aid to policing By: Marsha McLeod Posted: 5:00 AM CST Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023 Last Modified: 6:07 PM CST Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023 Updates

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It’s time for the Winnipeg Police Service to be outfitted with body-worn cameras, says the brother of Sean Thompson, a 30-year-old Anishinaabe man who died after being pulled down several porch stairs, shin-pinned and handcuffed by Winnipeg police in 2019.

Sean’s death is being examined as part of a joint inquest into the deaths of five men following altercations with Winnipeg police over a roughly 12-month period beginning in July 2018.

In an interview prior to the inquest, Felix Thompson, Sean’s younger brother, said there needs to be more accountability for the Winnipeg police, especially when it comes to officers’ interactions with Indigenous people.

“They need some kind of surveillance on them, watching them. The (Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba) and the watchdog are good, but they need actual footage cameras on them when they’re out on duty,” he said.

Thompson is not alone in his call. In recent months, several other families whose loved ones were shot and killed by Winnipeg police officers, or who died following altercations with law enforcement, have told the Free Press they also hope city officers are outfitted with cameras.

“Hopefully this shines the light onto the problems,” Thompson said.

The IIU, which investigates serious incidents involving police officers, said Winnipeg police, who were called to a North End home after reports of a break-in, did nothing to cause or contribute to Sean Thompson’s death. His official cause of death was deemed to be “mixed drug intoxication (cocaine, methamphetamine and ethanol).”

Winnipeg police leadership has been pursuing funding for the body-worn cameras for more than a decade, according to a 2021 city report. Last month, Winnipeg’s police board chair Coun. Markus Chambers told the Free Press it’s inevitable that body-worn cameras become the default for most police services, though he noted no real request is before the city council with regards to the technology.

Despite support of decision-makers, the demand for cameras comes at a time when the city is emphasizing it’s under significant fiscal pressure.

Body-worn cameras are not a panacea to issues in policing – and researchers are not unified on their potential to reduce officers’ use of force. Some raise concerns regarding over-surveillance and privacy. But supporters cite benefits in transparency, public trust in police, and evidence-gathering.

The ongoing inquest into Sean’s death — which is also examining the deaths of Matthew Fosseneuve, Randy Cochrane, Patrick Gagnon and Michael Bagot — has highlighted the ways body-camera footage might benefit such preceedings.

While the court has viewed video footage related to each of the men’s deaths, much of it has been of poor quality: taken from a distant cellphone; a restaurant’s surveillance camera, which didn’t include any audio; or, in Sean’s case, from a police helicopter: grainy black-and-white footage in which the activity is sometimes blocked by trees.

While it remains to be seen whether the ongoing inquest — which is being presided over by provincial court Judge Lindy Choy — will consider the question of body-worn cameras, a previous inquest weighed in on the technology.

In her inquest report into the death of Craig McDougall, who was shot and killed by a Winnipeg police officer in 2008, Judge Anne Krahn recommended the province and its police services “study and consider” the use of body cameras. In response to the 2017 report, Manitoba Justice said the Manitoba Police Commission had already reviewed the use of body cameras and determined they should not be used.

In 2021, the city had an opportunity implement the technology. Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth put his support behind the idea, writing in a report that while there did not seem to be conclusive evidence cameras “decrease violent incidents with police, there are substantive other benefits associated to increased public trust and confidence.” (Police declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing inquests.)

That year, city council voted down a proposal to direct additional funds to the service’s budget for the cameras.

Jonathan Williams, whose son Chad Williams was fatally shot by three Winnipeg police officers in 2019, argues the city’s officers should all wear body cameras.

“Cameras should be on every officer. And apparently the City of Winnipeg can’t afford them… but they can go around and waste money on other stupid crap,” Williams told the Free Press earlier this year, adding that if the service had body cameras, “then they wouldn’t have these inquests.”

Had the officers who shot Chad been wearing body cameras, he added in a recent Facebook message, “maybe there would have been a truth to the story of my son.” The IIU cleared police officers’ actions in Williams’ death and a subsequent inquest made no recommendations.

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Kris Saxberg, a lawyer representing the family of Viengxay Chommany in an upcoming inquest and civil lawsuit, also pointed to the importance of the technology. The IIU report into Chommany’s 2019 death indicates Winnipeg police officers punched him in the face at least five times, as well as in other parts of his body, and Tasered him at least twice. (The IIU cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing.)

“Can you imagine how great it would have been if there were cameras on the officers?” Saxberg said. “Would any of this be happening?”

“You just cannot understand what caused the death in a situation where the one party that could testify on their behalf, as to what actually happened, is deceased. The other parties are grossly biased to not wind up in jail,” Saxberg said. “You need objective evidence.”

Speaking to the Free Press last month, Felix Thompson described Sean as his best friend, a great father and a hard worker, who was long employed in the construction industry. The Thompson family is from Little Saskatchewan First Nation, which is about about 250 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

“You just cannot understand what caused the death in a situation where the one party that could testify on their behalf, as to what actually happened, is deceased. The other parties are grossly biased to not wind up in jail.”–Lawyer Kris Saxberg

As children, Thompson said, Sean was his protector, despite being just a year older – helping him deal with the death of their father at a young age, during a childhood that wasn’t always easy.

“He was always there for me,” Thompson said. “If you were having a bad day, he’d know what to say … he would just tell me, ‘can’t go back in the past, bro’ … ‘we’ve been through a lot worse stuff than this.’ And we have.”

The last time he saw Sean, just hours before he died, “he hugged me and told me he loved me,” Thompson said.

“Ever since my brother’s death, I spent many times deep in addictions – alcohol, drugs – trying to cope,” Thompson said.

“I realize there’s a grieving process,” he added. “There’s the denial. Then there’s, ‘I wish it was me,’ and all of this. The five stages of grief. It took me a lot to accept.”

marsha.mcleod@freepress.mb.ca

Marsha McLeod
Investigative reporter Signal

Marsha McLeod is an investigative reporter at the Free Press. She joined the Free Press in 2023. Read more about Marsha.

Every piece of reporting Marsha produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.