AT the 214th Police Day, when Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the government had approved an allocation for body-mounted cameras for the force, the news was greeted with much approval.
Current research suggests that body cams may offer many benefits for law enforcement. In many countries, Malaysia included, there is a lack of trust and confidence in law enforcement, although it must be noted that this trust deficit is not confined to the police force.
There have been many incidents in which the public have come to mistrust the police — corruption, use of force, abuse of power, abuse of a suspect while in custody and a perceived lack of efficiency.
These are among the challenges facing the police force. It is an image problem caused by a few bad apples that has long plagued the force.
Sir Robert Peel, the father of modern policing, famously said the ability of police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval.
Body cams have been viewed as one way of addressing these challenges, improving law enforcement and regaining public trust.
Web portal ProCon.org says among the benefits are better transparency and accountability; increased civility; quicker resolution; corroborating evidence; and, training opportunities.
Body cams also provide law enforcement with a surveillance tool to promote officer safety and efficiency and prevent crime.
Such devices have been in use in many countries for a while now, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Police departments in the US do not come under centralised command, unlike here and the UK. They are independent of each other and most do not employ body cams.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota, US, last year is one example why body cams are needed. In this case, however, it was used against the officer involved. Body cam footage of the incident showed just what Floyd suffered. The officer who knelt on his neck is now facing charges and the footage will be key in his prosecution.
The incident, though, can be deemed an exception to the norm, as the US National Institute of Justice states that such cameras actually drastically decrease police brutality, promote transparency and accountability, and improve community relationships with law enforcement.
There are, of course, cons to the use of body cams, so additional research is needed. Among the downsides are possible invasion of privacy issues, potentially exposing the victims and subjecting citizens to facial recognition software, decreasing the safety of police officers who may think twice before acting in a dangerous situation knowing that everything is being recorded, and negatively affecting their physical and mental health.
While this Leader welcomes this development to help boost police morale and protect them from slander by criminals or unscrupulous people, it also cautions the force to conduct a trial period, perform routine checks and monitor police routines.
As with everything else, the body cams must be used accordingly. Abusing the tool could push the public to distrust the police more while too much reliance on them can lead to unwarranted consequences.
One piece of legislation that needs to be included is that, it must be made a law that policemen cannot turn off their body cams or the system will be subject to abuse.