Grenada: Police body cameras will be piloted for 6 months

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(Now Grenada) – Officers attached to the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) are among the first 3 units that will be piloting the wearing of body cameras when the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) rolls out that initiative at the end of September.

Edvin Martin, Acting Commissioner of Police, made the announcement during a news conference on Wednesday, 26 August 2020. Besides the RRU, the roll-out will also involve the Drugs Squad and the Traffic Department. The body-worn cameras will be piloted for an assessment period of 6 months.

“The effectiveness of this initiative will be monitored on an ongoing basis and a review will take place after 6 months of implementation when a determination will be made on implementing this initiative across all departments of the police force,” Martin announced. “It is our hope, among other benefits of this initiative, that it will contribute to mitigating adversarial interactions between police officers and members of the public. It will significantly enhance our capacity to gather and capture evidence at the scenes of crimes and it will also provide a platform for investigative review if this becomes necessary.”

Urging police officers to “embrace this initiative,” Martin also asked the public for support. “It is no doubt that in many jurisdictions across the world that have implemented the use of body cams, they have been effective both in holding police officers accountable as well as controlling interactions between police and members of the public.”

Martin spoke at the virtual news conference in which he provided the statistics on criminal activities for the first 6 months of 2020. Martin said that during that period Grenada had a contraction in most crimes except for murder, which by June had 10. Presently the count is 13. It must be noted that Grenada has been functioning under a State of Emergency since late March. During the period March to June, there was restriction of movement of citizens.

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