PNP should have prepared body cam protocols during procurement process –Poe

The Philippine National Police (PNP) should have anticipated the need for protocols on the use of body cameras, saying rules for its use could have been arrived at while procurement negotiations were ongoing, Senator Grace Poe said Tuesday.

“The excuse the PNP is now making, should have been anticipated even while negotiations for the procurement of the body cameras was in process. The PNP should have consulted with the Data Privacy Commission on possible data privacy issues,” Poe told GMA News Online.

“Furthermore, the PNP leadership should have likewise brought that issue when its top leadership paid a virtual courtesy call last March 23 on newly appointed Chief Justice Gesmundo,” she added.

The lawmaker said the PNP should have asked the Chief Justice to issue even a circular on the proper use of body cameras pending approval of the proposed new Rules on Criminal Procedure which would include the use of body cameras based on their previous press release.

Former PNP chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa, on the other hand, said the PNP should be given time to “iron out everything.”

“Their protocols must be legally, operationally, and technically sound,” he said in a text message to GMA News Online.

Another former PNP chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson suggested the current leadership look into the Supreme Court ruling on Ople versus Torres on “reasonable expectation of privacy test.”

Based on the ruling, the test determines whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether the expectation has been violated.

Lacson recalled Senator Leila de Lima’s interpellation on the Anti-wiretapping Act during which the SC ruling was mentioned in the discussions involving the issue of an individual’s right to privacy.

“For example, a CCTV camera installed in a public place may be a good source of evidence since a malefactor caught in the camera while committing a crime will fail the ‘reasonable expectation of privacy test,’” Lacson told GMA News Online.

“The same is true with the body camera. Either way, the policeman committing an abuse in the exercise of his duties as well as the crime offender cannot use the “right to privacy” as their defense since either of them will fail the test,” he added.

In a press briefing Monday, Directorate for Logistics head Major General Angelito Casimiro said the body cameras have been distributed to police stations in Metro Manila but the Philippine National Police has yet to finalize the protocols on their use.

He said the PNP Directorate for Operations (DO) was still looking into privacy issues when presenting the videos of body cameras as evidence at the court.

A congressman on Tuesday also questioned the PNP’s late crafting of the protocols, saying this was not “rocket science.” — DVM, GMA News