T&T cops to test 40 body cameras

(Trinidad Express) Some police officers are expected to be outfitted with body cameras beginning later this month, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Willi­ams said yesterday.

The implementation of body cameras for police officers was one of the recommendations made by former director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Gillian Lucky as the PCA sought to address the raging issue of police killings. For the year so far, 34 people have been killed by police, according to an Express count.

During a brief telephone interview yesterday, Williams said the Police Service had already acquired 40 of those body cameras that will be put into use sometime later this month.

Williams said those 40 cameras will be first be tested over a period of time to determine if additional cameras should be purchased, based on how they operate.

If additional cameras are to be purchased, Williams said this would also depend on the amount of funding received by the Police Service to purchase the cameras.

In June, Lucky held a meeting with Williams to discuss the issue of police killings and made several recommendations, inclusive of outfitting officers with body cameras.

Following the meeting and du­ring a news conference at the PCA’s head office at Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, Lucky was quoted as saying: “Body cameras are important as they act as an independent means of determining where the truth lies. (And) the body cameras we speak of are high-tech and are on when you come out the vehicle, so as the officers are moving, the cameras are recording. It will not only determine where the truth lies, it also exists for exonerating officers and limiting the number of matters in which citizens complain about police impropriety.”

Since her resignation on Tuesday, the investigations into some of those police killings and other complaints against police officers will be overseen by deputy director of the PCA Master Ralph Doyle until another director is appointed.