New Senate Bill Requires Body Cams for Police in Operations

A new bill filed in the Senate of the Philippines calls for body cameras to be mandatorily worn by policemen at all times, especially during operations.

Senate Bill no. 1563 of the 17th Congress, filed by Senator Richard Gordon aims to promote accountability and transparency in the conduct of police operations. Under the said bill, police officers are required to wear body cams all the time, and most especially during the time of operations. The bill also sets standards for the wearable cameras — they must be able to produce a video size of 640 x 480 px with wide angle lens and support for night vision/night view, at least 25 frames per second, and storage and battery good enough for the wearer to record continuously for up to 3 hours without any interruptions.

Same as wearable cameras, police mobiles are also required to install dash cams with the bill with the same specifications as the wearable cameras except for the record time — dashboard cameras should be equipped with specifications enough to record 480p videos for up to eight hours.

The bill also requires the footages captured to be stored for up to one year, or three years from date of recording should there be any altercations or accidents captured with the video that would be vital for an impending case. Footages are only accessed upon formal request of the law agencies, and individual access shall be merit for disciplinary action and/or appropriate cases.

Once this has been enacted into law, police personnel and/or mobiles who do not adhere to the law will be sanctioned according to the implementing rules and regulations issued by the Department of Interior and Local Government, National Police Commission, PNP, NBl and PDEA.

Source: Senate PH

2 Comments

Jess says:

7 years ago

Finally! The use of cameras is the most practical solution to the problem of rampant police abuse of authority. I wonder why it took more than year since the bloody “war on drugs” started and thousands of suspects being killed after allegedly fighting back before a legislator filed a bill to make these cameras mandatory. As a matter of fact, a legislation is Congress would not even be necessary. An order from DILG or an executive order from Malacanang would be enough to require all police officers to wear body cameras. However, that would be asking for the moon since the president himself is the #1 condoner of police abuse.
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