Cops who won’t wear body-cams are criminals

How many times does the Philippine National Police have to be reminded, obligated, begged: Wear body cameras during anti-drug operations?

Body-cam videos are receipts of events. They can be used as court evidence. The guilty, whether cops or criminals, are exposed.

Sophisticated body-cams can transmit live video feeds. The command center can monitor field operatives in real time. Superiors can relay instructions and check subordinates’ wrongdoings.

Basic body-cams simply record audio and video. Still, those can rebut false accusations of police brutality. Replays will show if suspects truly fought back and drew weapons, so were felled. Police won’t be needlessly prosecuted.

Audio-videos can also show if cops abuse, plant false evidence or “salvage” (summarily execute) suspects. They’ll be disciplined.

Four police generals recently figured in the arbitrary release of a drug lord during a raid. Two claimed they were ordered to let the criminal go. Two others countered that they gave no such order and that the narco-trafficker was already gone when they arrived at the scene.

The police, Interior Department, Senate and House of Representatives are holding separate inquiries. Each one costs precious executive time.

Had the operatives donned body-cams, the generals who illegally exonerated the drug lord would have been videoed, Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said. Police should no longer rely on CCTVs on lamp posts or corner stores, he added.

As Senate President Pro Tempore in 2018, Recto allocated funds for tens of thousands of body cameras. But a series of National Police chiefs dragged their feet on the procurement.

Only director-general Guillermo Eleazar, straight as an arrow, finally required the use of body-cams in 2021. The gadget became part of policemen’s basic gear, along with badge, notepad, pen, baton, handcuffs, sidearm.

But when Eleazar retired from service, the National Police reverted to its old criminal ways. Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, son and nephew of two bemedaled police generals, told Sapol-dwIZ he will legislate mandatory use of body-cams.

Fast rewind to 2016-2019. Police conducted dozens of drug operations per week nationwide. Shabu laboratories and vice lord hideouts were raided. Street buy-busts entrapped pushers. Seven thousand suspects were killed because “nanlaban” (fought back). Three dozen lawmen perished too.

The National Police can’t produce the 7,000 weapons supposedly used by the suspects in fighting back. More basic, they did not think of wearing body cameras which counterparts in Asia, America and Europe have been using for two decades.

Consequence: president/commander-in-chief Rodrigo Duterte and then-National Police head Ronald dela Rosa are now under investigation. The International Criminal Court, hearing accounts of victims’ families and human rights lawyers, says up to 24,000 suspects were summarily executed.

Duterte and Dela Rosa can be charged with crimes against humanity. International warrants of arrests might be issued against them. They will have nowhere to hide from lawmen and bounty hunters.

All because they neglected body-cams.

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