All front-line, uniformed officers at Toronto Police now wear body cameras, he said, and will switch it on whenever they are responding to a call or engaged in an investigation. Some officers now also use it to take video statements, instead of the more traditional handwritten notes. “We’re finding that, generally, front-line officers like the tool because it is an accurate representation of what occurred,” Mr. Stairs said.

Mr. Shellnutt believes the video will eventually become public, either through the police complaints process, the FOI appeal or through civil litigation he is undertaking on behalf of Mr. O’Gilvie and his mother, Christine. It will take a while, however: At the earliest, he expects this could happen in early 2024.

Like what's shown in the example image above, Device Manager lists devices in separate categories so that it's easier to find what you're looking for. You can expand each section to see which devices are listed inside. Once you find the right hardware device, double-click it to see more information like its current status, driver details, or in some cases its power management options.

“There seems to be a definite pro-police policy with respect to when this information can be released,” Prof. Wortley continued. “It’s released strategically, when it supports police interests. But if it makes the police look bad, then that video footage is going to be held back.”

While Toronto Police eventually shared the officers’ notes with Mr. Shellnutt, they refused to release the footage, which he says directly contradicts the released officers’ notes. Mr. Hasani’s allegations have not been proven in court.

Device Manager is available in nearly every Windows version including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95, and more.

“It’s been such a benefit to our police service. I would encourage all police services to move as swiftly as possible to adopt this technology,” he said. “For us it’s been a game changer in terms of being transparent to the public. When our officers are interacting with the public, the cameras are always on, creating an indelible record of the interaction for our community.”

Kirsten Thompson, a lawyer with Dentons who specializes in privacy and cybersecurity, said that American law creates fewer hurdles for the release of this type of information.

OPP body-worn cameras

In many cases, people filing FOIs for police body camera footage will be aggrieved in some way, Ms. McPhail said, and those grievances could very well result in internal labour issues for the officers in question.

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A 2022 survey asked 172 police services at the national, provincial, municipal and First Nations level whether they had recently deployed body-worn cameras. In total, 128 responded, and of those, 36 said they had used the technology.

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The footage is uploaded to cloud servers in Canada at the end of each shift, and is kept for at least two years; this could be longer if the video becomes part of a misconduct proceeding or court case.

Different things happen in Device Manager to indicate an error or the state of a device that isn't "normal." In other words, if a device isn't in complete working order, you can tell by looking closely at the list of devices.

Scot Wortley, a University of Toronto professor at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, said that body cameras are “not a panacea,” but could be a useful accountability tool – if the public is able to access the videos.

Device Manager is an extension of the Microsoft Management Console that provides a central and organized view of all the Microsoft Windows recognized hardware installed in a computer.

Just to be clear, Device Manager is included in Windows—there's no need to download and install anything extra. There are a number of downloadable programs called "Device Manager" that do this or that, but they are not the utility in Windows that we're talking about here.

Mr. Shellnutt, managing partner of Toronto law firm the Biking Lawyer LLP, was representing Hasani O’Gilvie, a Black University of Toronto student who alleges three officers mistook him for someone else, tackled him, put a knee on his neck and tasered him in August, 2021. The video, which Mr. Shellnutt has viewed as part of the police complaints process but cannot legally share or describe, is “horrifying and shocking,” he says, and the public deserves to see it.

Think of this tool as the primary list of hardware that Windows understands. All the hardware on your computer can be configured from this centralized utility.

It's good to know what to look for because it's where you go to troubleshoot a device that isn't working properly. You can go to Device Manager to update a driver, disable a device, etc.

If a device is disabled, whether by your own doing or because of a deeper problem, you'll see a black arrow by the device in Device Manager. Older versions of Windows (XP and prior) give a red x for the same reason.

Police bodycameras pros and cons

You can use it to change hardware configuration options, manage drivers, disable and enable hardware, identify conflicts between hardware devices, and much more.

Each device listing contains a detailed driver, system resource, and other configuration information and settings. When you change a setting for a piece of hardware, it changes the way Windows works with that hardware.

To further convey what the problem is, Device Manager gives error codes when a device is having a system resource conflict, driver problem, or another hardware issue. These are simply called Device Manager error codes or hardware error codes.

Managing hardware devices installed in a computer, like hard disk drives, keyboards, sound cards, USB devices, and more, can be done through Device Manager.

Device Manager can be accessed in several ways in all versions of Windows, most commonly from the Control Panel, the Command Prompt, or Computer Management. However, a few of the newer operating systems support some unique ways for opening it.

Freedom-of-information laws exist at all levels of government in Canada, and provide a process by which individuals can formally request records held by public bodies that would otherwise be inaccessible.

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Inspector Quinn Jacques of the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta told The Globe that body cameras have been enormously valuable.

Currently, police often act as if they own the footage, and this benefits the police services, he said. In some cases, forces have released video that depicts them in a positive light without the permission of the civilians involved in the case.

But as the United States reels from video of Tyre Nichols’s fatal police beating, experts warn that Canadian citizens looking to obtain this kind of footage are likely to face very different challenges from their American counterparts. This is largely because of the broader nature of Canadian privacy law, which allows police forces to withhold videos they may not want released in the first place.

“While no records relating to this matter should have been released, our Access and Privacy Section was not aware of the ongoing nature of the proceedings at the time when notes were released,” Mr. Stairs said in an e-mail. “It was only through the process of collecting the body-worn camera footage that the Access and Privacy Section became aware of the ongoing proceedings and the denial of the record ensued.”

Lawyer David Shellnutt and Christine O’Gilvie, mother of Hasani O’Gilvie, in Toronto, on Feb. 1.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail

At least 36 police services in Canada have used body cameras in some capacity in recent years, according to a 2022 analysis by Queen’s University criminology professor Alana Saulnier that surveyed 172 national, provincial, municipal and First Nations policing services. Those include police in Toronto, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon and Medicine Hat, along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“I think that where body-camera footage is going to damage the reputation of the police, they will fight it at all costs,” he said. “They have unlimited resources to do so.”

“Consistent with the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the hands-off approach to government, they generally don’t legislate unless problems arise,” she said. As a result, there is no general, overarching privacy legislation south of the border. Instead, there are sector-specific privacy laws in the United States, and some states have also passed their own privacy laws.

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Body-worn cameras Canada

If you were having troubles with your network card, you might open the Network adapters area and see if there are any unusual icons or colors associated with the device in question. You can double-click it if you want more information about it or to perform one of the tasks listed below.

Go to View > Devices by Connection to see what's connected to each USB port. If you're still uncertain, right-click a USB root hub and go to Properties > General to see what's connected to it.

Mr. Shellnutt is appealing the Toronto Police’s decision with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner. The case will test the police’s reasoning for withholding the body-camera footage requested under FOI.

In a letter to Mr. Shellnutt’s firm, a freedom-of-information (FOI) co-ordinator for the police said the video could not be released because “the responsive records are currently related to a labour matter in which our institution has an interest.”

Ms. Thompson said that under Canadian law, people are entitled to access information about themselves that has been collected by public institutions – with some exceptions. For example, in the case of body-camera footage, an individual should be able to view video of an interaction between themselves and police. However, if there are other private citizens in the video, they may need to be edited out. Or, if the footage is part of an active police investigation, the service may be able to withhold access.

Brenda McPhail, a privacy, technology and surveillance expert with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said that Toronto Police’s reasoning for withholding the video – that it was part of a continuing labour matter – was “fundamentally contradictory and a bit hypocritical,” and a “really crafty way” of getting around requirements under Ontario’s freedom-of-information law.

You can also get to Device Manager via the command-line, or the Run dialog box, with a special command (devmgmt.msc). For help, see How to Access Device Manager From the Command Prompt.

According to Toronto Police deputy chief of information and technology Colin Stairs, the service released body-camera footage in response to FOI requests 37 times in 2021, and 94 times between January and October, 2022. Generally speaking, he said, “this is people requesting videos about themselves.”

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Civilianbodycamera laws Canada

If a third party – such as a member of the media – tried to obtain footage that pertained to an individual and police, they would have a harder time, she said. The video would need to be altered in a way that did not compromise any of the personal information about the private citizen, including their likeness, voice or identifying details.

Something you may see is a yellow exclamation point. This is given to a device when Windows finds a problem with it. The issue may be extreme or as simple as a device driver problem.

Some of these categories include Audio inputs and outputs, Disk drives, Display adapters, DVD/CD-ROM drives, Printers, Sound, video and game controllers, and Universal Serial Bus controllers.

When Dave Shellnutt filed a freedom-of-information request to the Toronto Police Service last year for officers’ notes and body-worn camera footage, he already knew what the video would show.

Mr. Stairs said videos are also released to lawyers during court cases, and that in some instances individuals have been allowed to view body-camera footage without an FOI request or legal proceeding by sitting down with a desk sergeant.

Body cameras instill confidence in the police service, create evidence for court and help the service with training, he said.

Police bodycameras Canada

Look for your camera under Cameras or Sound, video, and game controllers. If you still can't find the webcam, go to Action > Scan for hardware changes and wait for Device Manager to scan and reinstall updated drivers. Restart your computer and look for your camera again.

Body cameras have become increasingly common in North America, and are often touted as a police accountability tool. Strapped to front-line officers’ chests, they can record hours of continuous footage.