The Sarnia Police Service has implemented a new monitoring system in its holding cells at its Christina Street headquarters.
During Thursday's Board meeting, it was announced that police now have a biometric monitoring system from GT Global Services Inc. in all of its cells.
This new system will give radar feedback about the suspects heart rate, respiratory monitoring and body motion.
The system is only activated when a cell is occupied and its purpose is to swiftly alert officers of potentially life-threatening medical issues, permitting immediate intervention and access to care.
It doesn't offer any personal identifiers, which means the privacy of those in custody is respected and protected.
Insp. Michael Van Sickle said the program is just getting operational.
"It was installed probably about two weeks ago but there was a lot of fine tuning," he said. "Over the course of the last two weeks we did some fine tuning to ensure that it knows what an empty cell is and it already knows what a living person is."
The process of getting this system in place in Sarnia has been in the works for the last three to four months.
According to Van Sickle, the first police service in the country to use it is in Regina.
He said there are some in Ontario that are also implementing it, and he would like to see more police services using it.
"We are at the forefront of this technology and certainly with the way that we're interested in letting the public know, we're going to be at the front," Van Sickle said. "We don't want to be the only ones. Certainly if anyone can learn from us, we're going to be open to talking to anybody about it. It should be everywhere. Like, why not?".
He said having this system will not change the physical checks that officers are required to do of the cells.
"This is just to trigger an additional physical check. So, the physical checks will happen at regular intervals or when required but now we've introduced this system that says hey you should go back and check them right now," said Van Sickle.
He believes having this system will increase the safety of the suspects, and also provide liability to the officers in case of an emergency.
The system will always be turned on and also has the opportunity to go mobile.
"Everybody has a credential that can get them into it to ensure that everything is okay," said Van Sickle.
Sarnia Police said this system will help officers face the high risks and potential liability police organizations face.
So far this year 1,710 arrests have been made.
