Dear Editor,

For months, years, in fact, Jamaicans have been told the same story: Body cameras are coming, the infrastructure needs to be sorted, and the storage capabilities need to be in place. Be patient, the cameras are on order. The cameras have arrived. The cameras are being deployed.

We believed them. We waited. We gave the benefit of the doubt.

But recently the deputy prime minister and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang stood up at a post-Cabinet press briefing and told us the truth, the truth he had carefully avoided saying out loud all this time: The police will not be wearing body cameras on operations in which they confront armed criminals — not now; not with the next 1,000 cameras; not ever, if this minister has his way.

He called the very suggestion — demanded by the Jamaican people (some of whom voted for him and his party), recommended by the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), supported by human rights organisations, and backed by overwhelming public opinion — “a crazy idea”, not a logistical challenge, not a work in progress, but a crazy +idea.

Previously, Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake, when asked directly by journalists whether body cameras would be used in planned operations, responded, “Absolutely!” — this was January 2026, three months ago. This same commissioner has since deployed the cameras to be used at traffic stops and spot checks, not to the operations in which people are dying.

This is not incompetence. This is coordination: two men, one story. In my opinion, they have been drip-feeding the public just enough progress to silence the pressure while ensuring that the one deployment that actually matters, on planned operations where 311 people were killed in 2025 alone, never happens.

But Indecom has the receipts. Indecom’s own investigations found that in 252 fatal and non-fatal shooting incidents, not a single body-worn camera was activated — not one! And when cameras were present, they were conveniently turned off.

Indecom’s Assistant Commissioner Hamish Campbell, as reported on November 1, 2024, documented that in incidents when cameras were affixed to officers, three of those four cameras were not turned on. The fourth was switched on after the shooting was already over.

Indecom Deputy Commissioner Yanique Taylor Wellington has repeatedly and urgently called for mandatory camera use on planned operations, noting that the absence of footage undermines accountability and deepens the public’s mistrust of law enforcement. She has said this so many times it has become what Indecom itself calls a “broken record” recommendation, because it keeps being ignored.

So cameras were there. Officers were trained. The infrastructure existed. But someone kept turning them off. This does not appear to be a logistics problem, this is a policy, an unspoken, unwritten, deliberate policy, and, finally, Dr Chang said it out loud.

Now let’s talk about who Dr Chang is and what he is being paid to do. Dr Chang, as previously stated, is the deputy prime minister and minister of national security of Jamaica. He is also the Member of Parliament for St James North Western and serves at the pleasure of the Jamaican electorate. His salary, paid by Jamaican taxpayers, is $25,729,103 per year. That is $2.14 million every single month from your taxes, and from the taxes of the same Jamaicans he is now telling that their demand for police accountability is a crazy idea.

The position of the Jamaican public on body cameras is not ambiguous. It is not divided. Survey after survey, statement after statement from civil society, Indecom, the Jamaican Bar Association, human rights organisations, and ordinary Jamaicans has made it clear that the overwhelming majority of this country wants body cameras on police officers during operations. The people paying Dr Chang’s salary have spoken clearly and consistently.

In any functioning democracy when an elected minister’s position is in direct, open, and defiant opposition to the overwhelming will of the people he serves there are two options: align with the people or resign. This is not a radical demand, it is the basic contract of democratic governance.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has called for a special Caricom heads of Government meeting to address the reappointment of the Caricom Secretary General Dr Carla Natalie Barnett because one member State, Trinidad, objected — one country, and Jamaica’s prime minister moved with urgency.

Over two million Jamaicans object to the police refusing to wear body cameras on operations. Over two million people are paying Dr Chang’s salary and telling him directly what they need from his ministry. Yet the same urgency has not been extended to them because, apparently, Dr Chang thinks he is the general secretary of Jamaica and not a paid public servant.

Let us be absolutely clear about what this is and what this is not. No one is saying the police are criminals. No one is attacking the work of the men and women of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) who risk their lives daily. The JCF has done genuine work in bringing Jamaica’s murder rate to a 30-year low, and this must be acknowledged. But acknowledgement must come with accountability. The same accountability we demand of every other institution in a democratic society: proof.

When a police officer discharges his/her firearm and a person dies, the Jamaican public has a right to know, verified by footage, not by a press release, what happened — not because we assume the officer is guilty, but because without that proof we cannot stand with the officer against those who would falsely accuse him/her. Without that footage, we cannot tell the difference between a police officer doing his/her job and a police officer committing a crime.

The absence of cameras does not protect good police officers, it protects bad ones. And it ensures that the good ones can never fully clear their names. Dr Chang knows this. Commissioner Blake knows this. Indecom has told them both, repeatedly, patiently, and on the record.

The cameras exist, the training exists, and the infrastructure exists. The only thing missing is the political will, and the minister told us exactly why this will is missing: He never intended for them to be used when it matters most. That is the line, and it has now been crossed in public.

Shaquille Ramsay

President

Campus Reporter

The University of the West Indies, Mona

shaquilleramsay@gmail.com