By: Aaron B. Recuenco
Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said yesterday he is in favor of installing body cameras on policemen during the conduct of operations, especially those relating to illegal drugs.
This, amid the growing public outrage on the death of 17-year old Kian Lloyd delos Santos who was allegedly executed by three policemen during the conduct of anti-drugs operations in Caloocan City last week.
Dela Rosa said the use of body cameras would erase all doubts about future operations, especially on the allegations of planting of evidence and executions of policemen on illegal drugs personalities.
“I am in favor of that. That is good. This is to erase all doubts on all police operations. We should always be transparent,” said dela Rosa in an interview over dwIZ.
Some lawmakers from both the Senate and the House of Representatives are already pushing for a legislation that would make it mandatory for policemen to wear body cameras during operations.
Dela Rosa said the use of body cameras is more practical than earlier proposals to have policemen record the operations through cellular phones or ordinary video cameras.
The old way of recording police operations, he said, would only out the lives of the police at risk, especially the one in charge of the recordings.
But with the proposal, Dela Rosa said he does not see any disadvantage on the part of the operating policemen.
“It will be detrimental on the police who have bad intentions because everything will be recorded. This will not be detrimental to good policemen,” said dela Rosa.