Jurisdictions across Canada and the U.S. are increasingly mandating video surveillance of officers' interactions with suspects at police stations in entranceways, holding cells and interrogation rooms. 

This is done for the safety and protection of officers as much as suspects, says Karl Vancl, account manager at Mississauga-based video systems vendor Panasonic Canada. "Lawsuits are often filed, and people sometimes say something happened that didn't really."

New areas of police surveillance will likely be coming in the future. In the U.S., many states already mandate in-car video surveillance, says Dilip Sarangan, San Antonio, TX-based senior analyst at global consultancy Frost and Sullivan.

"In cases of reckless driving and other traffic violations, cameras are used as extra evidence that suspects were doing what the police say they were - otherwise, it's just one person's word against another."
Vancouver and Toronto are already moving to in-car video and the volume of requests for video evidence of police activities by lawyers and investigators responding to complaints is on the rise across Canada, says Vancl. "Police have to look at new ways to streamline video capture and management, or they'll soon be overwhelmed by the number of requests they receive."