Islamabad police is introducing body worn cameras for cops on checkpoints. The footage from the cameras would be connected to the safe city and will be used in courts as evidence. The decision has been taken in this regard by Islamabad Police.
Assistant Inspector General of Police (Operations) (AIG) Sardar Ghias Gul told the media that the decision has been taken to upgrade the Islamabad police and bring the force up to international standard.
He further added that “We usually receive complaints from people about police officials misbehaving with them at check posts. The complains of misbehaving is turning out to be vise versa. However, police claims that citizens usually misbehave with them.
The new body worn cameras will be mighty effective to address the complaints on both sides. This would also help monitor the check posts and entry points more closely.
“Body worn video (BWV) will play a vital role in achieving this goal. It will become possible to have live coverage of incidents and those videos will also be used as evidence. Because of GPS, it will also become possible to check the location of officials and get live coverage of mobs etc so that appropriate arrangements can be made in advance,” he added further.
Initially 20 cameras will be acquired and more would be added with time. The cameras are sponsored by JS bank.
“However, in Pakistani courts, suspects’ lawyers do not accept police officials as witnesses and their statements become doubtful. By introducing BWVs we will be able to provide footage of operations as evidence,” DIG said. He further added that after the introduction of the technology police officials will be heard in court.
