Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has firmly ensconced himself on the right side of history in taking a firm and unequivocal position on the police being equipped with body-worn cameras.

“The policy of the Government is to fully deploy camera systems for the police force. Just to be clear, there have been some discussions that seem to suggest that the Government doesn’t intend that everyone who interacts with the public should have a body camera. That’s not the case,” said Dr Holness.

That was clearly a stinging rebuke of his National Security and Peace Minister Dr Horace Chang, who insisted recently that the police would not be wearing body cameras on operations where they are confronting armed criminals, and dismissing the call for them to do so as “a crazy idea”.

It is still not clear to this newspaper what could possibly have motivated Dr Chang to adopt such a bewildering stance, which now appears not to have had the blessing of his boss, the prime minister, and most certainly is askance with the national sentiment.

“This thing that you must wear a camera when you going to look for a man who has an M16 that’s firing 60 rounds per second is a crazy idea,” declared Dr Chang then. “When gunshot start blaze across your head or over your head, you’re going to dive, you’re going to find cover, even if you’re a policeman, and look a place where you can find a space to in fact return fire,” he added.

Dr Chang might wish to be more careful in the public statements he makes in this regard. After all, he does not want to despoil his legacy of heading the security ministry at the time when the country has seen its greatest assault on murders since Independence.

Addressing the 91st Staff and Junior Command Course graduation exercise at the National Police College of Jamaica last Friday, the prime minister was obviously seized with the importance of keeping the people on the side of the police by reminding that, as at May 19, 2026, Jamaica recorded 204 murders to date, compared to 268 over the same period last year, following three years of continuous decline.

He reiterated that the policy of the Government was to fully deploy camera systems for the police force — including body-worn cameras, patrol car cameras, and national surveillance infrastructure — and “I want to put Jamaica at ease”.

In that, Dr Holness is also aligned with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), which wrote on its website that as body-worn cameras become “a new normal in policing”, they can help make officers’ jobs easier.

The purpose of body-worn cameras is to capture police-community member interactions, and the footage captured can be an invaluable tool for officers, prosecutors, and others in processing evidence and in the ability to provide a level of transparency with outside parties that was previously unachievable, the IACP says.

It said that as an educational and investigative tool they allow officers to review, articulate, and demonstrate evidence that officers would otherwise be without. Body-worn cameras can also be beneficial to departmental evaluation of training and policy.

The IACP acknowledges that although some departments had seen opposition to the implementation of body-worn cameras, many officers conclude that the benefits often outweigh the costs.

Right move, Mr Prime Minister.