THE police are advising persons who choose to take videos or photos of active crime scenes, particularly shootings, to exercise great caution to ensure they are not in danger of being harmed in the crossfire.

This comes against the background of a recent video that emerged on social media depicting the active shootout between Beryllium security guards and gunmen last month at the Scotiabank, Cookson Pen Branch in Portmore, St Catherine. The security company’s crew came under heavy gunfire while servicing the automated teller machines at the bank.

The video, which showed bullets ricocheting off vehicles in the vicinity, appeared to have been filmed from the balcony of a nearby building across from the bank with just a short wall providing some form of protection. It captured two other persons who were also filming from the upstairs building, ducking behind the wall as bullets flew.

According to deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime and security, Fitz Bailey, during an active shooting, those who are recording have to be mindful that they do not expose themselves to being accidentally shot by stray bullets in the process.

“In terms of persons doing the recording, they must consider as well the risk that they may expose themselves to in terms of an active shooting and the possibility of them being injured during the process of recording, so it has its advantages and disadvantages and in a society where there are so many devices available to every citizen, it’s going to be difficult for us not to see more of these types of activities being recorded and circulated,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

He noted that while persons have the right to use their devices to record activities they see, they must be cognisant that during the process of recording, potential witnesses — whom the perpetrator may not have known — may be exposed during the recording of those activities.

Even while advising persons to exercise caution while filming, DCP Bailey noted, however, that those recordings sometimes provide valuable assistance such as “good intelligence” to law enforcement during investigations.

“It helps us to identify possible conveyance that was used in the commission of the crime, the people that committed the crime, among other things. So they provide valuable support and in instances if those persons who take the photographs or videos can make themselves available, that would even be more added support for policing because at least we could authenticate the video that is being circulated; and that video can also be used as means of identifying officially the persons that were involved in the action,” he said.

There is a flip side, however, as pictures and videos from bystanders can also compromise identification parades, DCP Bailey noted.

“If there is a need for an ID parade to be held and those videos of possible suspects are [being] circulated, it can have some negative impact on the identification parade as well. Because…when a person’s photograph is taken and circulated in the public, it can have implications for possible identification parades for suspects because defence counsel can draw the clause that the person has been exposed…so that’s why, for instance, when you do an ID parade, we try not to expose the photograph of the individual,” he said.

“But on the converse, it can also assist the public to identify the person, and maybe in the event that there is no need for an ID parade, it also provides some significant support for law enforcement and the public to assist law enforcement in identifying the perpetrator of crimes,” he added.

DCP Bailey said that even though the recording sometimes provides vital information, it may not be able to be used unless the author of the recording makes him or herself available for police investigations.

“Once we can identify the maker, in the interest of justice, sometimes some of those persons who take the photographs should make themselves available to just validate the recording. The recording can only be used in law enforcement when it is validated by the author,” he said.