PCA Director: No body-cam footage available for any police-involved shootings this year
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has revealed that no body cam footage has been made available for their investigations into all the police-involved shootings, this year.
And PCA Director David West says that is an indication that police officers are not using their body cameras on the job.
West asserts that the Police Commissioner has a responsibility to ensure that the body cameras are used by her officers, more so those on the frontlines, including Task Force officers and those in the Guard & Emergency Branch.
“There is a departmental order (No. 93), which states that body cameras must be worn at all times,” he notes. “Government has spent money on body cameras, and they are buying more cameras. But if the police don’t wear the body cameras, what is the use?”
“It is up to the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the body cameras are used by her [police officers]—especially those on the frontlines,” the PCA director stated.
A guest on today’s edition of CNC3’s The Morning Brew show, David West confirmed that he has met with the newly appointed Minister in the Ministry of National Security with responsibility for the Police Service, and he did raise the issue of body-cams usage during their meeting.
David West points out that if police officers use their body cameras, that would make investigations much shorter and remove the ambiguity surrounding police involved killings.
“Many times we hear the police are acting on information and went and did X-Y-and-Z,” he observed.
“If they are acting on information, then they have enough time to prepare themselves, plan the interception, and therefore, put on the body cameras so [their crime-fighting activity] is transparent, and we would not have this issue of [determining] what transpired and if the police [employed] the Use of Force Policy,” he argues.
The PCA director said the organisation made the recommendation for police officers to wear body cameras since 2019.
Some 37 people have been killed by police so far in 2024.
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