Soon after the Ferguson incident in the USA, a significant policy suggestion emerged to equip police officers with body cameras
By M Khalid Shaikh
There are countless incidences in which some officials belonging tolaw enforcement agencies (LEA) have misused their positions just to gain a few thousand rupees. In this country, victims of crime keep running from pillar to post for justice which in most cases is never delivered. Or if it is delivered than as per “The Contractor by Raymond Davis”, it is often in the form of forcefully obtaining mercy from the victim’s family or by forcing them to accept blood money.
Most developing nations have similar civilian policing systems which arehostile, inefficient and corrupt. The Arab spring was also the result of one such incident when Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi committed self-immolation in protest against high handedness by government officials.
Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in response to the confiscation of his goods and the persecution and humiliation he had to endure at the hands of municipal official Faida Hamidy. Hamidy (who was later cleared of all charges) had slapped and spit on Bouazizi in public.
This high handedness of government and police officials eventually triggered the Tunisian uprising which overthrew the government. The Tunisian uprising itself gave rise to the Arab uprising. Many women and men have committed suicide in similar or more intense manners here in Pakistan whilst protesting against human rights abuses by Pakistan’s LEA’s.
Soon after the Ferguson incident in the USA, one significant policy suggestion emerged which was to equip police officers with body cameras. Reimagine incidents which can be cited to give examples of LEA officials’ excessive use of force. Only this time with the officers having body cameras. We would have known with certainty whether the victims were killed with justified reasons or whether the LEAs overreacted. Body cameras could also provide insight into how LEA’s interact with civilians.
People all over the world consider the use of body cameras as a cure-all. It is considered that they are the singular effective solution to the problem of excessive use of force by some members of LEAs and to be able to prevent gruesome extra-judicial murders or acts of harassment. Videos from these body cameras tell us exactly what happened, thus entirely eliminating the “he-said, she-said” vagueness of LEA-citizen encounters. Use of body cameras by LEA officials is an appropriate policy response to all those events that are considered a blatant misuse of authority.
Whereas the instant induction of body camera in the LEAs may not be useful for the past events however this move will offer three broad benefits for the future. Firstly, this will produce unbiased, unequi vocal recordsof all future LEA-citizen encounters.
Secondly, the use of body cameras will dissuade misconduct and will prompt the LEAs to behave better. Lastly, people will feel slightly safer even in the face of LEA’s poor human rights violation records. Moreover, from the litigation point of view, in case of complaints against LEA officials there can be some records to prove a case against these public funded officials. It should be made mandatory for all officers irrespective of their grades to record all encounters with the public. They should also be required to record their encounters with known criminals as all crimes don’t deserve a bullet in the head. The officers should be required to put the cameras on recording for the duration of their on-duty hours because intermittent recording creates a possibility that an officer could resort to corruption, abuse and excessive use of force when the camera is off.This will also help LEA’s to purge themselves from the bounty hunters, extortionists, kidnappers and other such offenders residing in the ranks of the force or apprehend people like Kamran (Chaudary Aslam’s guard) quickly.
When higher ups in LEAs live a life above the law, live in large houses, drive cars that are too expensive to buy on their salary and don’t respect the writ of the law then it is obvious that a constable or a sentry won’t feel apprehensive while taking a bribe or when killing out of a grudge and blaming it later on the victim. Therefore LEA higher ups should propose this reform themselves and set an example.
A large number of LEA officials might be genuinely serving the force and the public, and have certainly lost their lives in the line of duty. However, this doesn’t give their colleagues and their respective organizations justifications to misuse their positions. Moreover whenever a proposition for reforms is put forward they must not be forgiven if they cite sacrifices of life or limb while performing their duty.
My point is to introduce the obligatory use of body cameras by all civilian LEAs whether plain clothed or in uniform. In fact, official as well as private vehicles of LEA officials should have cameras that should be recording while the officials are on duty. The recording should be monitored by civil societies as well as bodies such as the CPLC along with concerned department officials.
The body camera will offer numerous benefits and will be seen as a positive action especially by civil society. Since more and more members of the public are increasingly using their own video-recording technology and might be showing only one side of the story, this will benefit the LEAs as well in case of undue litigations by the public.