Smith said that the goal of the announcement was to start a conversation about the use of drones equipped with Tasers as a possible solution. "I acknowledge that our passion for finding new solutions to stop mass shootings led us to move quickly," Smith said in a statement. "However, in light of feedback, we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward."

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association also said it has “serious questions” about the privacy implications of the cameras, citing their potential use in people’s homes or during mental health calls in which individuals might be in distress.

Recent violent and fatal incidents involving police in Canada and the United States have prompted louder calls for more widespread use of body cameras by police in order to combat alleged brutality and racism.

There’s an “erosion of public trust” in police at this time and the cameras can only serve to “enhance” trust in law enforcement, Babineau said.

“I also know from some experience that video evidence can be the best possible evidence to give us all and the public a better understanding of exactly what transpired,” Blair said.

Axon CEO Rick Smith suggested the drones could be deployed as a measure to prevent mass shootings. As Reuters notes, he envisioned drones being stationed in school hallways and having the ability to enter rooms through vents. The drone system, which Axon suggested might be ready as soon as 2024, would have cost schools around $1,000 per year.

Just west of the city, Peel Regional Police said last week they’ve kick-started a process to implement the cameras, citing recent events.

Nine of the 12 members said in a resignation letter that, just a few weeks ago, the board voted 8-4 to recommend that Axon shouldn't move forward with a pilot study for a Taser-equipped drone concept. "In that limited conception, the Taser-equipped drone was to be used only in situations in which it might avoid a police officer using a firearm, thereby potentially saving a life," the nine board members wrote. They noted Axon might decline to follow that recommendation and were working on a report regarding measures the company should have in place were it to move forward.

A better approach than cameras, McClelland argued, would be to financially incentive police officers to not engage in excessive use of force, noting that police officers often get put on paid leave during investigations and are able to get rehired in other police services after getting fired, in some cases.

— With files from Global News’ Abigail Bimman, Craig Lord, Crystal Oag, Dan Spector, Heide Pearson, Nick Westoll and Ryan Rocca

The University of Toronto examined 10 camera experiments in six jurisdictions, mostly in the U.K., and found “no overall impact on police use of force,” on average.

She agreed the cameras could encourage both police officers and citizens to keep their behaviour “in check” and provide an additional account of how events transpired.

In Montreal, renewed pressure is mounting on the city to equip police with body-worn cameras. Meanwhile, Quebec’s provincial police force bought 169 body cameras and 33 dashboard cameras three years ago but has yet to use them, as Global News reported on June 5.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday he wants the RCMP to use body-worn cameras and that he will push Canada’s premiers later this week “about the need to move forward on measures like body cameras” within provincial and municipal police services, too.

McClelland added he’s also concerned that the information collected by the cameras could be “weaponized” against marginalized communities that have frequent run-ins with police and violate privacy rights. A study out of Montreal found the cameras didn’t improve people’s trust in police, he said.

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Minneapolis police officers involved in the fatal arrest of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, were wearing body cameras, McClelland noted.

The cameras can help to document incidents of racism but they don’t “stop the underlying patterns of racism,” McClelland argued, citing another study on traffic stops out of Oakland.

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That said, Babineau emphasized that “very rigorous policy” needs to govern the use of the cameras, including whether they remain on at all times or are automatically triggered on and off.

“I think we’ve come to a point now where those in decision making positions are actually listening and that is, to me, a watershed moment,” Babineau said.

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The nine individuals said they were blindsided by an announcement from the company last Thursday — nine days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — about starting development of such a drone. It had an aim of "incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds." Axon said it "asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability."

Tracy Wing, whose son Riley Fairholm was shot and killed by Quebec provincial police in the Eastern Townships in 2018, said she favours wider police use of cameras — on dashboards at the very least.

In Ottawa, where the head of the police union supports using body cameras, the police service said it will consider the tool in exploring ways “improve public trust.” Meanwhile, residents from Nova Scotia to British Columbia have signed petitions called for their police force to adopt the cameras.

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“The data is inconclusive to show that body cameras decrease violent incidents with police,” McClelland said, noting the data for Canada remains limited.

Babineau emphasized that body-worn cameras are “not a silver bullet” but said they’re one of a number of tools that police departments should be employing. He called for “over-arching” zero-tolerance policies on racial profiling within police agencies, from the recruitment to pension phases.

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“The reality is that having a camera pointed at individuals also affects their behaviour, their level of comfort with police and potentially the outcome of the interaction for the individual who’s in contact with police,” said Brenda McPhail, director of the association’s privacy, surveillance, and technology project.

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One major study out of Washington, D.C. concluded that law enforcement agencies considering the use of body-worn cameras should not expect “large, department-wide improvements in outcomes.”

In Canada, calls for more body cameras have been directed at both local and national police following the death of a Toronto woman who fell from her balcony after officers were called to her apartment in late May, as well as the violent arrest of an Inuk man by an RCMP officer in Nunavut.

The AI ethics board has had previous success in convincing Axon to change course. In 2019, the company said it wouldn't use facial recognition in its police body cameras after the board expressed concern about the plan.

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While studies of body-worn cameras have been conducted globally, the data that’s out there is “inconclusive,” said Alexander McClelland, a post-doctoral fellow in the University of Ottawa’s department of criminology.

Alain Babineau, a former RCMP officer and advisor with the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, has long pushed for police use of body cameras in Montreal.

Axon has paused work on a project to build drones equipped with its Tasers. A majority of its artificial intelligence ethics board quit after the plan was announced last week.

But in the last few weeks, many municipal police chiefs have pledged to revisit the tool. Outgoing Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders has said he’s trying to speed up the roll-out of the cameras following the death of 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

The Calgary Police Service is so far the only major police force in the country that has equipped all its front-line officers with the tool. The police force implemented the service-wide roll out last year.

But experts remain at odds over whether those cameras will improve transparency and accountability in police interactions with civilians.

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The system would have tapped into security camera feeds to detect active shooter events using both human monitoring and artificial intelligence. While a human operator would have made the final decision on whether to fire a Taser, Axon planned to develop "targeting algorithms" to help them with "properly and safely aiming the device."

"This type of surveillance undoubtedly will harm communities of color and others who are overpoliced, and likely well beyond that," the resigning board members wrote. "The Taser-equipped drone also has no realistic chance of solving the mass shooting problem Axon now is prescribing it for, only distracting society from real solutions to a tragic problem. We all feel the desperate need to do something to address our epidemic of mass shootings. But Axon’s proposal to elevate a tech-and-policing response when there are far less harmful alternatives, is not the solution."

The cameras aren’t widely used in Canada at this time, but advocates and policy experts have mixed reviews on how effective they’d be if deployed more extensively.

Those board members said that before Axon made its announcement, they urged it to "pull back" on the plans. "But the company charged ahead in a way that struck many of us as trading on the tragedy of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings," they wrote. "Significantly for us, it bypassed Axon’s commitment to consult with the company’s own AI Ethics Board."

Other police departments have piloted body-worn cameras but haven’t moved forward with their use. Some, like Toronto, did recommend their use, but others didn’t — like Montreal, who cited the cost.

On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair — who formerly served as Toronto’s police chief — said the cameras can be useful.