Another police shooting occurred this week in Winnipeg.

Bystander-recorded footage shared online shows two Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) officers shooting and killing Jordan Charlie, a 24-year-old man from Nunavut. Charlie was shot after he allegedly stabbed an officer in the throat. Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit (IIU), is investigating the officer-involved shooting case.

There are again renewed calls for body-worn cameras in Winnipeg.

On Sunday evening, following the shooting, Acting Winnipeg Police Chief Art Stannard held a late-night press conference where he suggested that bystander videos on social media do not show the full sequence of events leading up to the shooting. “We are aware of videos online, and we caution the public that they do not show the entire incident,” said Stannard.

And neither ever will body camera recordings, despite a chorus of claims suggesting otherwise.

Police officers switch on their body cameras when they arrive on scene, usually following a call for service. This means that any given incident is already in progress and that body cameras will not always capture critical moments leading up to police intervention.

But won’t body cameras somehow restore public trust and confidence in Winnipeg police?

Depends on who you ask.

Research routinely shows that Black and Indigenous populations have lower levels of public trust and confidence in police generally. Evidence reveals generations of mistrust of police by Black and Indigenous populations. Racialized people continue to experience disproportionate amounts of violence enacted upon them by police across the country. Consider that over a period of eleven days, beginning at the end of August into early September 2024, six Indigenous people were killed in police-involved incidents across Canada.

Winnipeg has the highest urban Indigenous population in Canada. Perhaps this explains in part why public perceptions and confidence in police in places like Winnipeg are generally lower. Body cameras will certainly not address trust in police among racialized communities for the simple fact that footage will not be released to the public.

Unlike in the U.S., body camera footage is not typically publicly released in Canada due to strict federal privacy legislation. What this means, then, is that following a critical incident like an officer-involved shooting, Black and Indigenous communities will just be expected to blindly believe that body camera footage shows whatever the police say that it shows.

The chair of the Winnipeg police board, Councillor Markus Chambers, said following the officer-involved shooting that “body-worn cameras likely wouldn’t have resulted in this not happening,” and he is most certainly correct.

But this raises the question, was there something that could have helped to prevent this and other tragic incidents like it from happening? Yes.

Investments in affordable housing would help reduce incidents of violent crime in cities like Winnipeg. Reports indicate that the man who police shot and killed this week was unhoused.

A 2022 University of California study found that affordable housing in the form of building low-cost units for residents led to reductions in crime, including notably violent crime, and increases in surrounding property values. What city is the safest from violent crime in the U.S., you ask? Irvine, California, is the city with the most affordable housing. According to police analysis of crime data, the city has maintained the lowest violent crime rate per capita for cities with comparable populations across the U.S. for nearly two decades.

Fortunately, Manitoba’s NDP government has promised $116 million to build and maintain affordable housing units as a part of its 2024-25 budget. This is a good step in the right direction. However, the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation says it needs $40-$50 million more over the next several years to sustain its affordable housing initiatives.

Body camera programs are expensive, costing millions of dollars annually to sustain. The devices will likely not lead to trust or confidence in police, especially not among racialized groups who are most impacted by police violence. Neither will body cameras reduce violent crime.

However, investments in affordable housing have proven beneficial.

Strongly advocating for affordable housing initiatives will make cities like Winnipeg safer and, thus, better for communities and the police officers who serve those communities.

–  Christopher J. Schneider, Professor of Sociology at Brandon University and author of Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of Digital Media, 2nd Edition.