THE Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 has received 256 body-worn cameras from Camp Crame, the national police headquarters, and these devices will be used in carrying out warrants to search and to arrest.
PRO 7 Director Ronnie Montejo said these devices will be distributed to all the city police stations in Central Visayas. Before distributing the body cameras, he said, they will select police officers and train them on how to use devices.
The Supreme Court (SC) recently released “Rules on the Use of Body-Worn Cameras in the Execution of Warrants,” requiring the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies to wear body cams during the implementation of search warrants and warrants of arrest; however, an arrest would still be considered valid if law enforcers can prove that the video-recording device malfunctioned during the operation or they can give other “reasonable grounds.”
PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar welcomed the new set of rules, which were passed as a resolution by the SC En Banc on June 29, 2021 as “there are increasing reports of civilian deaths resulting from the execution of warrants issued by trial courts,” and with “the causes and conditions surrounding such deaths being widely disputed.”
Reporters in Cebu who cover the police beat often interview police officials after an operation. After a drug bust that resulted in a suspect’s death, the leader of the police unit usually faces the reporters, and the official would often say that the suspect died after engaging them in a shootout.
Wearing a body cam, said Eleazar, would prove that the accusations of human rights violations hurled against the PNP were unjustified.
The police official said only 171 police units in the country will receive body cams.
Eleazar visited Cebu and inspected several police offices starting July 11. He then paid a courtesy call on Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia at the Capitol Building last Tuesday, July 13. The Provincial Board promised to give its full support to the PNP by crafting local laws that would help promote peace and order in the province.