Eleazar: Some mayors want to donate body cams to PNP

Some local government units and other stakeholders want to donate body worn cameras for police officers, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar said on Monday.

In a statement, Eleazar said some mayors and private individuals expressed interest in providing the body worn cameras as the PNP makes efforts to fill up its target number for these items.

“I have already directed the Director, Directorate for Research and Development,  Police Major General Domingo Lucas, to provide me with the specifications of the body-worn cameras that would work under the body camera system that we are currently using,” Eleazar said.

“The move is to ensure that all the body-worn cameras that would be donated are compatible with our existing body camera system,” he added.

Earlier, Eleazar said the PNP needs 33,000 to 34,000 body-worn cameras to cover all the police units in the country, with 16 of the device per police station.

On June 4, the PNP launched a body-worn camera system for the police to ensure transparency and legitimacy of law-enforcement operations.

In the launching event, PNP chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar said that initially, a total of 2,696 units have been distributed to 171 police stations and offices.

All 20 city police offices and 108 city police stations nationwide are set to receive the body-worn cameras, Eleazar said.

He said his target is to provide body cameras to at least all the provincial, city and station level drug enforcement units to ease  doubts and speculations in anti-illegal drugs operations of the PNP.

Almost 3,000 body cameras were procured recently from the fund allocated by the Congress, the PNP said. All of them were already distributed in city police stations, mostly in Metro Manila., it added. —NB, GMA News