“The alarming number of abuses necessitates safeguards to protect the citizens of our country and to help in ending the culture of impunity within the ranks of our law enforcement agencies.”
So said Senator Richard Gordon on Sunday as he proposed to require the use of cameras for law enforcers conducting search and arrest operations while their vehicles used in the said operations should be installed with dash-board cameras.
Gordon filed Senate Bill No.1536 or the “Body Camera and Dashboard Camera for Law Enforcement Officers Act of 2017” which provides that all law enforcement officers with the authority to conduct searches and make arrests shall be required to use body and dashboard cameras to record events that occur while in the course of conducting a search or making an arrest.
According to Gordon, this will ensure the accountability and tranparency in the conduct of law enforcement operations and improve the country’s criminal justice system.
“The Bill of Rights enshrined in the 1987 Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It also provides that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and for any purpose shall be inviolable,” he further explained.
This bill requiires any law enforcement authorities like the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, among others, with authority to conduct searches and make arrests to wear a body camera and record the events that occur while the operation takes place.
However, this bill also give limits to the use of the said cameras. The body cameras shall not be used surreptitiously, “A law enforcement officer who is wearing a body camera shall, as far as practicable, notify the subject of the recording that he/she is being recorded by a body camera at the commencement of the encounter.”
The bill also prohibits law enforcers from using the body cameras to record activity that is unrelated to a response to a call for service or a law enforcement or investigative encounter between a law enforcement officer and a member of the public.
Meanwhile, in terms of installing dashboard cameras in operation vehicles, it shall be installed in a location and manner that maximizes the camera’s ability to capture video footage of the law enforcement officer’s activities. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV
