The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is in line to receive and operationalize 3000 body cameras for police officers. In recent weeks director of the Police Complaints Authority David West has indicated that the PCA has never received any body cam footage in relation to police involved deaths. There have been 41 fatal police shootings already recorded for this year and resistance by officers to wearing the cameras.
At this time 1,120 police officers have been provided with body cameras to wear on the job, but they have not been fully used as required. In April, Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher gave a directive to officers who had been issued such devices to wear them while on duty.
Diamond Systems and Supplies Ltd has been awarded a $25 million contract for the purchase of 3,000 body cameras for police officers. Diamond Systems and Supplies Ltd a La Romaine based company has partnered with Huawei to bring in the body-worn cameras from China.
The 3,000 EC310 Smart 4K body worn cameras come at a cost of
TTD $24,965,310.00.” 1,000 body cameras ready to be shipped, while another 1,000 are being manufactured, with the last 1,000 expected to be sent by the end of the year.”
The tendering process took place in July and the source said three other companies submitted bids for the project before Diamond Systems and Supplies Ltd was chosen in August.
The EC310 Smart 4K body worn cameras enable officers at the operations centre to see everything in real time and there is also a push-and-talk button where senior officers can speak to the officers on the field at times.
The camera allow for real-time viewing of police operations and recording footage live onto the Evidence Management Platform (EMP) where all the footage is stored, and it cannot be deleted or altered and that provides for chain of custody.