Body cameras for cops from Sept 1

Police from various units are expected to wear body cameras from September 1, says director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky. Lucky, who met with acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday, said she was told 40 cameras were already bought. She said Williams would determine which units would use them. “He (Williams) said a system was being put in place for its usage and the Police Service is acquiring more cameras and the protocols are being put in place,” Lucky said at the press conference yesterday at the Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain.

She said body cameras acted as an independent means of determining where the truth lay. “The body cameras are high-tech and when you come out of the police vehicle, as police officers are moving the cameras are recording,” Lucky said. She said the reason that particular equipment was used by many worldwide jurisdictions was because it also assisted in exonerating the police and helping in matters involving police impropriety. “In jurisdictions which have used this, what they have found is that many of the complaints about police impropriety have in fact been reduced because civilians are aware that there is an independent recording of the circumstances of the shooting,” Lucky said.

Lucky first made the recommendation some two years ago. She had first suggested the cameras in November 2012, saying they would provide solid evidence if the police were accused of any wrongdoing. At the time, she was speaking at a town meeting at the Bon Air High School and had addressed questions of serious police misconduct.