IN the aftermath of the announcement by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) that it has acquired 1,000 body-worn cameras (BWCs), the rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) has started to raise concerns about potentially ticklish issues related to their use and deployment.

While the issues being raised are relevant and will have to be dealt with frontally by the JCF and the Ministry of National Security and Peace, we wonder why JFJ has seemingly put the horse before the cart by not addressing the issues before the acquisition.

In its statement welcoming the announcement, JFJ expressed concern that, while the JCF has said deployment will be guided by operational needs, training readiness, and established governance protocols, it remains “unclear how these criteria will apply to planned police operations”.

The group also called for the strengthening of the 2021 Body-Worn Cameras Policy and Procedures and the enactment of supporting regulations, insisting: “These should clearly address activation and use, handling of infractions/failures to activate, disciplinary measures for non-compliance, and broader privacy concerns (access, retention, exceptions) — beyond the Data Protection Act — to ensure a robust, enforceable framework.”

Moreover, JFJ gives the appearance that the onus is only on the police force to see that the use of BWCs is effective, without putting any pressure on the general public for accepting its own role and the need for awareness in what must be a two-sided matter.

Of course, one must appreciate the potential good of BWCs, particularly in a context of public distrust of police accounts of engagement with citizens and the allegations, often without evidence, of extrajudicial killings stoked by organisations like JFJ.

Notably, introduction of BWCs has been widely accepted as one of the most successful policing reforms of the 21st century. It has been praised as a tool for promoting transparency and soothing public anger and distrust by improving accountability.

The first BWCs were used in the United Kingdom around 2005, and deployed in the early 2010s in the US, where by 2016 an impressive 47 per cent of law enforcement agencies had acquired them. Much of this was prodded by public pressure for more comprehensive oversight of police operations in which citizens were suffering questionable fatalities.

The belief, however, that police equipped with BWCs will automatically mean less fatalities is foolhardy. If JFJ wants to help, the least that it can do is to launch a public education campaign to help Jamaicans embrace their part by understanding that unnecessary resistance to police carrying out their lawful duties encourages more violent engagement — a situation in which BWCs will be of no use.

Additionally, BWCs will come with inherent problems, like malfunctioning devices; inadequate maintenance and replacement; lack of storage and accountability for cameras; and privacy in their handling, among others, suggesting that BWCs are not to be seen as a panacea.

JFJ might also be willing to concede that the dramatic decrease in the number of Jamaicans now not being killed seems to coincide with the greater fatality figures among criminal gunmen. And that is a dilemma we face, BWCs or not.