Gov't installing required technology for police body-worn cameras, says Holness

 

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness is advising critics that the government and the Police High Command are installing the required technology to issue body-worn cameras to members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

 

The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) have been highly critical of the Police High Command over what they claim is the slow pace at which body-worn cameras are being issued to the police.

 

They argue that the cameras would settle allegations surrounding controversial police shootings. 

 

But speaking Tuesday at the commissioning of a JamaicaEye control centre at the Olympic Gardens Police Station in St. Andrew, the Prime Minister assured that the required infrastructure is being installed for the deployment of the body-worn cameras.

 

He dismissed the criticisms being levelled at the Police High Command.

 

"That C5 centre is very close to being operational. It cost a significant amount of resources. We have funded it, so we're not just talking about security, we are putting it in. All the people talking about cameras and body-worn cameras, come on, man, the government knows what it is doing, and we are moving with speed and alacrity to have it installed. It is in the government's interest, in your interest, that our police officers have body-worn cameras, and as fast as possible we want to have those deployed. 

 

"But we don't want to have cameras that we put on and then it doesn't work. It's not about cameras, it's about an ecosystem where each officer can capture the situation that confronts them, and have that evidence capture stored in a retrievable way but in a secure way that it cannot be manipulated, so that it reaches evidentiary standards for court proceedings. That is what we want, and so it takes time to build out that so that it has endurance. And that is what we're doing," he sought to explain.

 

Fifty-one CCTV cameras have been installed under the JamaicaEye programme to monitor the movement of criminals in the Olympic Gardens community at a cost of $100 million. 

 

Dr. Holness said thousands of CCTV cameras will be installed across the island over the next three years under a plan to expand the national JamaicaEye programme.

 

"Over the next three years we will add 2,500 cameras across Jamaica island-wide. Already, 500 of those have been earmarked for Portmore, Old Harbour, Port Antonio. We are building out a national infrastructure of safety. So, for all the people who are quick to retort, 'Where are the cameras? Where are the cameras?' You going get camera til you don't know what fi do with it," he said. 

 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Holness defended the increased role of members of the military in police operations. 

 

Dr. Holness said the complement of the Jamaica Defence Force has been increased from 3,000 soldiers to its current 8,000 since 2018. He insisted that the increased recruitment of police and soldiers is part of the government's plan to strengthen the country's security forces to combat organised crime and gang conflicts which are threatening national security. 

 

"The JCF today is not the JCF of 10 years ago, totally different organisation. Now I see articles being written about Jamaica militarising. What nonsense! The truth is we have been very unsophisticated in our security arrangements - so unsophisticated that criminals had greater capacity to create mayhem than the security forces had to bring them under control. And there are those who are vested in seeing our security forces underfunded, undersupported. No criminal organisation must have more capabilities than our security forces," he argued.