The Edmonton Police Service and a local IT company say they have entered into a partnership to give neurodiverse employees more opportunity while assisting in the province’s body-worn camera rollout program.
Neurodiverse employees with Technology North will be helping with the redaction of body camera footage in low-complexity incidents.
EPS says the goal is to redact the private information of individuals who are not directly involved in the police interaction. Examples include redacting the licence plate on a nearby vehicle, someone walking past, or a computer, phone or documentation that may contain sensitive or private information.
Police say the work usually needs to be done frame by frame, and requires a high attention to detail.
The move comes before a provincial mandate for law enforcement officers in Alberta to wear body cams coming into effect this summer. Edmonton police say there will be a significant increase in the amount of digital evidence they’ll have to process.
The partnership between EPS and Technology North started after they connected through the Telus Community Safety Wellness Accelerator — a group created through the Edmonton Police Foundation aimed at finding innovative solutions for various issues around the city.
“Speaking with Technology North, we came to realize there was an incredible opportunity for the EPS to expand our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace through the addition of neurodiverse employees to our team,” said Supt. Derek McIntyre with the EPS Information and Analytics Division.
“Working collaboratively with Technology North, we developed this project to train a group of their autistic employees to assist us with the redaction of body worn camera footage, which is structured and repeatable work that suits their extraordinary capabilities and talents.”
“This project is a testament to a successful partnership between Technology North and the EPS, which aims to create large-scale, meaningful digital-age jobs for youth and adults on the autism spectrum and beyond. Technology North and EPS are setting a benchmark in community-driven initiatives by offering individuals and families hope rather than despair and paving the way for an enhanced quality of life and independence,” Ling Huang, president and CEO of Technology North, added.
EPS says at this time, there is no end date for the project.
Parents of the employees at Technology North told media Tuesday, that having their children employed in meaningful work has made a world of difference in their lives, at jobs matched to their unique skill set.
“Excellent eye-hand coordination, the ability to focus on repetitive and menial tasks, and that’s Ryan. If you ever saw him play a video game when he was younger, he’d just be lights out because of those kinds of skills,” said parent Rob Wolfert.
Another parent, Delfina Lambertts, added, “We have to do a mind-shift: ‘what can they offer into society and into the community at large?’ They have the skills, we just need to find it and support them a bit, and they can offer us so much more in return.”
Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee previously told media there would be over 280 body cams on city streets by the end of July. On Tuesday, police provided an update on the phased roll-out of body cameras, which they say will continue into the fall.
“We received our first shipment of 80 additional cameras today, from our vendor Axon. And over the course of the summer, we’ll be receiving all the hardware in relation to what their roll-out looks like, we start our training in September, and by the end of the year we will have 280 operational cameras,” said Supt. Derek McIntyre, with the information and analytics division of the Edmonton Police Service.