Body camera cost an arresting development for city taxpayers
By Lethbridge Herald on July 18, 2025.
LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald
Because of a provincially mandated requirement that all police departments be issued body worn cameras by the end of 2026, local taxpayers could be seeing an additional tax hike of some indeterminate amount when the next council does budget deliberations.
Could is the operative word because while Economic and Finance Standing Policy Committee of city council last Thursday voted unanimously to accept a recommendation that council direct the expenditures of the money needed to cover costs for 2025-26, nobody knows exactly what will transpire in the future.
What we do know is, as I wrote in Saturday’s Herald, the SPC agreed with the recommendation by administration that the camera costs be funded for 2025 and 2026 with expenditures to be funded from the Municipal Revenue Stabilization Reserve as a one-time allocation.
Council was asked to approve up to $555,000 this year and up to $914,000 in 2026.
The SPC also recommended that council direct administration to include the ongoing budget pressure for the cameras in the 2027 and 2028-31 operating budgets.
Net new costs are expected to be $554,375 in 2025, $708,529 in 2026, $718,029 in 2027, $727,529 in 2028 and $942,500 in 2029.
The cost of a new Axiom camera is $490, DEMS licence is $1,540 and disclosure is $5,560.Â
For grant-eligible years the City would bear 78 per cent of costs and the province 22 per cent.
The SPC also recommended that council direct administration to include the ongoing budget pressure for the cameras in the 2027 and 2028-31 operating budgets.
If council approves the recommendation, the City will have costs of about $725,000 annually for three years and nearly $1 million a year after the grant expires.
Are body cameras necessary? Well the provincial government thinks so and at the SPC we heard from LPS chief Shahin Mehdizadeh they do increase transparency and public trust.
In theory, the province will be subsidizing costs with an annual grant for three years but should they be paying the full cost since it was the government that insisted upon the cameras?
 Or has the two years since they announced them been enough for municipalities to figure out how to pay for them?
Strong debate could be made for both arguments. More than three years is a substantial time for municipalities to get their financial horses in order but since the province ordered these cameras be worn should they not pay the full cost to give communities a bit more time to figure things out? If all municipalities do four-year budgets their finances are essentially locked in.
Regardless where people stand on this issue is the simple reality we taxpayers are on the hook to pay for the cameras.Â
While we escaped, perhaps temporarily, an additional tax hike to pay for the ongoing LDE operations when council last December voted against an administration recommendation for an additional hike, eventually unless that organization can start quickly paying its own way, residents will be on the hook more for its operations, as well.
And what happens if the wastewater treatment plant can no longer function without the expensive upgrades that have been determined necessary for its future? Another tax hike?
Residents of all ages are telling me they are worried about their ability to live in this city because of tax pressures. Housing affordability and job security – which are huge issues given the shadow being cast over us by American tariffs in addition to inflation – have people worried.Â
Seniors and young families alike have told me they are concerned about the cost of living in Lethbridge and their ability to do so moving forward.
If the city is going to grow and prosper we need to find ways of increasing both the residential and commercial tax base to ease the burden on existing taxpayers. Or we need to find ways of cutting costs which is not an ideal solution if the city hopes to attract new residents and businesses.
Money needs to be invested into infrastructure and new neighbourhoods. We need to have a vibrant cultural community as well as recreation activities and well-maintained parklands. I’ve been told by people in the real estate industry barriers and red tape need to be reduced to speed up development permits.
We need to give people a reasons to stay here and relocate here. The perception of Lethbridge being too costly could impact that. And perception, even if it’s not based in fact, does have an impact.
We need to ensure that changes to the land use bylaw to increase housing affordability don’t impact the ability of residents in existing neighbourhoods to park their own vehicles at their homes, a concern that also has been expressed to me by residents.
This beautiful, vibrant, diverse city has so much to offer existing residents and people interested in relocating here but it has financial challenges that can’t be ignored.
The requirement for body cameras, for lack of a better description, is an arresting development that will be the focus of coffee shop talk for months as people come to terms with the fact that there could be an additional burden on their finances which in some cases are nearly tapped out. People have told me that – they can’t afford to keep paying more out of their pocket to cover City expenses when they are struggling to pay rent, mortgages and for groceries.
But what’s the solution? Figuring out what the community’s top priorities are, to start with. Â
What civic expenditures are truly necessary to help propel this community forward?Â
What expenses can be eliminated or reduced, or delayed without serious impediment to Lethbridge’s liveability or growth?
What are true needs for Lethbridge and what are desirable wants? Questions that have to be answered.
31-30
Let’s talk about our biggest challenge, namely the supply of Lethbridge water.
Shouldn’t the growth mantra also consider the limits of our water source, especially in a time of industrial and mining imperatives?
This time we are dictated to shoulder the burden of an extra million a year. What will be the cost of the next decree?
“Olivier De Schutter is a Belgian legal scholar specializing in economic and social rights. He is a professor of international human rights law, European Union law, and legal theory at the University of Louvain in Belgium, as well as at the College of Europe and at Sciences Po in Paris. He has regularly contributed to the American University Washington College of Law Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. On May 1, 2020, he was appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
Four years later, De Schutter submitted a report to the United Nations that warns humanity’s obsession with growth is enriching elites and killing the planet. We need an economy based on human rights, the report argues. It goes on to say economic growth allows the few to grow ever wealthier and that ending poverty and environmental catastrophe demands fresh thinking.”
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/07/04/our-obsession-with-growth-is-killing-the-planet-un-report/
Al I think the initial increase for these body cams to our property taxes was stated as .4%. But as you state, to be determined!
One area that many people are not aware of is the high cost of dealing with the drug issues, which increase homelessness, crime, property damage, and cause our police, fire and EMS to increase their staffing numbers, as well as all of the services needed to counter the impacts, such as the Watch, Outreach, D.O.T., Clean Sweep, and other services contracted out so clean up or repair which I estimate is costing local tax payers alone around $14 million per year. That is a conservative estimate.
A couple of years ago I attempted to get a FOIP request on the total costs, but was told it would cost me an additional $1250 and would not be complete, because the city doesn’t track those costs! I had to do my own calculations!
It was about $10 million, but now, with more services being provided and increases in police and fire to keep up, I estimate it to be about $14 million.
Most of these costs are directly from those who encamp or sleep rough on our streets and commit crimes all night long while we try to sleep. The prostitues, drug dealers and the crime are all related!
There are no issues in our city now we have a shelter that is running about 40% occupancy for people to be on our streets all night and all day!
It is very much a law enforcement issue was stated in a different SPC meeting.
So, if we reduce this criminality, we will reduce the costs and those savings can help to pay for the mandated body cams.
If you pay attention, you will see the constant police, fire and EMS calls to these areas that back up what I am stating. It has got out of hand for our city, but normal for some others, but we do not have to accept it and it can be resolved. There will always be an element there after we reduce these issues, but they were be more manageable and less costly.
There needs to be a will by leadership to bring that change!
We do not have to accept what happens in other cities to be the norm of what happens on our streets! It is very much a leadership issue!
Just because the feds have bound the crown prosecutors from acting in certain cases doesn’t mean that we cannot enforce existing laws which will bring change.
Right now there are little to no deterents for these criminals because many charges that could be laid are not . . . and that is not the boots on the ground fault! They are just as tired of this mess on our streets!
Nobody is paying attention though or they just do not care where their tax dollars are being burned up on! It is fixable!