THE PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) has now formed a technical working group (TWG) tasked to study the Supreme Court (SC) resolution outlining the guidelines on the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) in the service of arrest and search warrants.
In an interview with One News' "The Chiefs" on Wednesday night, PNP chief Gn. Guillermo Eleazar said the TWG is now looking into the 16-page resolution of the high court which they received this week.
"In fact, nasa process ng pag-aaral pa yan kasi yung may mga bagong provisions doon na kailangan i-apply natin (We are already in the process of studying the (SC resolution) as there are new provisions there that we will apply) and will be implemented in the guidelines that we will be issuing to our personnel," he added.
The PNP has so far distributed 2,696 BWCs to around 171 police stations and units nationwide. Eleazar said another 30,000 units are needed for distribution to around 1,500 to 1,700 PNP units.
"Meaning to say, only 8 percent of our (BWCs) requirement were given to our police stations and based on the SC guidelines, meron din dapat gamitin kung ang mga police units natin were not issued with BWCs. Gagamitin nila itong mga alternative recording device na puwede mga cellphones na may mga specifications (Police units that were not issued with BWCs should have alternative recording equipment to use. They can use alternative recording devices like cellphones with specifications)," Eleazar said.
He also added that they will have to make adjustments as the SC resolution is quite long and that they need to go over it carefully before coming up with their finalized or revised BWCs guidelines.
Earlier, Eleazar assured the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that mechanisms are in place to ensure data privacy in the use of body cameras in police operations.
The CHR earlier expressed “high hopes” that the body cameras would result in more transparent police operations, which would bring back public trust in law enforcement. (Priam Nepomuceno)
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