Kitchener is one step closer to approving the use of police-operated CCTV cameras.
The city’s Finance and Corporate Services Committee approved an agreement with the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) to allow for the installation of remotely operated CCTV cameras on Kitchener infrastructure.
It’s a program that has already seen approvals in Waterloo, and police are attempting to get all of the region’s municipalities on board.
Kitchener becomes the second municipality to sign onto the program after the Township of Wilmot council decided to delay making a decision indefinitely in February.
“If it’s not Kitchener, we will add more to Waterloo, or Cambridge, or wherever it is, but we have what we purchased through the grant, and we also have a 10-year expansion strategy,” said regional police Deputy Chief Jen Davis at Monday’s committee meeting. “The plan would be to actually expand and roll out 2026 cameras as well to more locations later this year.”
The cameras, when installed, would not be used as a live feed; they would be accessed retroactively as a tool for investigations, and any unused footage would be deleted after 30 days if it isn’t part of an active investigation.
Regional police plan on installing cameras in Downtown Kitchener along King Street and on Fairway Road alongside the Fairview Park Mall, according to Davis.
“You have a community that has been asking for it, and a business community that is asking for it, as well as Fairview Park Mall because of incidents that have been happening in that area of the city,” said Davis.
Despite having agreements already in place, regional police have yet to install cameras in Waterloo as the police service works through “agreements with all relevant stakeholders to ensure a consistent and coordinated approach,” according to Inspector Jarrett Brown of the Innovation and Modernization division.
The decision in Kitchener will need approvals from council at an upcoming meeting.
