Over 1,200 frontline police officers are equipped with body-worn cameras, to protect them from allegations of misconduct and abuse, but there seems to be lack of enforcement which compels the officers to switch them on while on duty.
This is according to senior officers who said the matter has reached the attention of Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher.
Manager of the police corporate communications unit Joanne Archie said on Saturday she had reached out to the CoP for a response to Newsday's queries.
In February, Harewood-Christopher told Parliament's Joint Select Committee on National Security 1,000 body-worn cameras had been distributed to officers across the ten police divisions, the Inter-Agency Task Force and the Guard and Emergency Branch.
She said then another 400 units will be available by the end of May.
During the tenure of former police commissioner Gary Griffith and acting police commissioner McDonald Jacob, body-worn cameras were introduced for the first time in the service but delays in outfitting police stations with charging docks and other devices to allow officers to download footage delayed the implementation.
A departmental order signed by former acting police commissioner Stephen Williams, on August 11, 2017, details standard operating procedure for the use of body-worn cameras and makes it mandatory for the cameras to be switched on once an officer is dispatched on patrol.
The camera must remain on until the officer completes his/her shift and station shift commanders are responsible for maintaining a camera register, documenting the issue, return and recorded viewing history.
The move to implement body-worn cameras came after claims of extra-judicial killings, police corruption, abuse and other acts of serious misconduct, and it was anticipated that such complaints would be reduced if there were audio and visual recordings of those incidents.
Police Social and Welfare Association president ASP Gideon Dickson on Saturday said, he was aware there was "limited usage of body-worn cameras" but was unaware of reports that officers were not switching them on while on duty. He said the use of such technology was a step in the right direction but noted, "once there was change, there would be resistance to change." Dickson said he was aware that there were plans to acquire more cameras.
Dickson said the police commissioner had a responsibility to encourage that change and believed it was necessary to retrain and re-certify officers who must use body-worn cameras.
In response to questions, the Police Complaints Authority, which investigates allegations of serious police misconduct, including police-involved killings, said, "Body camera footage is one of the most useful and effective tools in investigating criminal offences involving police officers and serious police misconduct. This type of evidence captures exchanges during police interaction with civilians and/or the conduct of the police during police operations. The footage also assists with dispelling a
