Body cams seen to clear doubts in police ops

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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
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MANILA – At least four senators proposed the mandatory wearing of body cameras among law enforcers during searches and arrests.

Footage from the body cams will provide “indisputable evidence” on how police operations are carried out, said Grace Poe.

Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, Francis Pangilinan, and Richard Gordon made the proposal in light of the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos, who was killed in a police antidrug operation in Caloocan City last month.

Officers claimed delos Santos resisted arrest and fired at them but security camera footage, witness accounts and forensic findings suggested the police killed the 17-year-old student, whom they tagged as a drug courier.

“Kasi ngayon, sasabihin, hindi naman nanlaban. E kung talagang nanlaban? At least mayroon kayong pruweba sa totoong pangyayari,” Poe said. “We don’t want to discourage a legitimate operation that follows proper protocols.”

A video recording of police operations is a “powerful tool” that will ensure transparency and accountability in the administration’s crackdown on drugs, Gatchalian said.

“Footage collected from police body cams would provide concrete evidence to hold police scalawags administratively and criminally liable for violating their oath to serve and protect the people,” he said.

This way, “policemen wrongly accused of abuses during police raids will be able to use the video evidence to clear their names while the scalawags will be thrown in jail for their crimes,” he added.

Gordon and Pangilinan filed Senate Bill Nos. 1563 and 1564, respectively, to require and regulate the use of wearable body cameras and dashboard cameras among law enforcement officers.

This will “put an end to the radically divergent accounts of police encounters and protect the public from police abuse and misconduct,” Pangilinan said.

Gordon added that police in the United States, United Kingdom and Denmark use body cams to reduce misconduct among officers./PN
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