Ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) have enhanced their daily operations by using body cameras when performing their duties.
In a Facebook post on Friday, the police in Region 5 (Mahaica-Berbice) disclosed that ranks within the region have been using body cameras.
According to the post, with the use of the portable video recording devices, known as body cameras, senior officers are expected to be able to better monitor interactions between the ranks and members of the public and also gather evidence in cases where persons commit offences.
In December, last year, Head of the Force Information Technology (IT) Department, Assistant Commissioner Edgar Thomas had told Stabroek News that body cameras were introduced in an effort to increase transparency.
Thomas had said that the implementation of the use of the body cameras is aimed at benefitting both the police and public, equally.
He explained that it is expected to increase the level of transparency in law enforcement and police conduct and reduce certain types of problems, particularly corrupt practices, while producing live evidence of day-to-day interactions and monitoring the ranks’ behaviour when interacting with the public.
Thomas had further noted that there may be cases where people may seek to trump up allegations against the police, who may be proven innocent by their cameras.
He said that the ultimate goal is to have body cameras for every rank and police station across the country. “…So you wouldn’t see every policeman out there with cameras but eventually we want to get there,” Thomas had said.
In April last year, the GPF had announced that as part of a reform process, 40 ranks from the then D Division (West Demerara) were trained to use the body cameras.
The training was to allow the ranks to be able to operate the equipment to capture digital audio and video evidence for criminal, civil and traffic offences, which would also assist ranks with recalling facts and other details captured by the equipment that would accurately relate a chain of events when writing reports.
The police force had stated that the ranks would be required to wear the body cameras during their shift at “all times” and required to activate it when it is “absolutely” necessary, such as in traffic stops, priority responses, vehicle pursuits, arrest situations, vehicles searches, physical confrontations, and crimes in progress, among others.
