JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, February 13, 2025

PCA yet to receive body cam footage for police shootings, says West

by

19 days ago
20250125
Police Complaints Authority director David West

Police Complaints Authority director David West

NICOLE DRAYTON

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.com

With six po­lice-in­volved shoot­ings in the past sev­en days, the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) says they are yet to re­ceive any body cam­era footage for any of them.

In fact, in a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, PCA di­rec­tor David West, who has led the or­gan­i­sa­tion since 2014, said the PCA has nev­er re­ceived any footage of any po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing.

“The PCA has nev­er re­ceived any body-worn cam­era footage from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice. I don’t want to spec­u­late why that is, whether or not they do have the footage or they don’t.”

Body cam­eras were in­tro­duced to the TTPS in 2017 as a pi­lot project by then-act­ing po­lice com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams.

Last year, the po­lice ser­vice had 1,120 body cam­eras.

Asked about body cam­eras at yes­ter­day’s TTPS me­dia brief­ing in Port-of-Spain, DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin said there are 940 cur­rent­ly in use but as­sured that was not all the po­lice need­ed to main­tain in­tegri­ty.

“So, as we move for­ward, we are hop­ing, as we con­tin­ue to ex­pect a year where you’re go­ing to see that high in­ten­si­ty, that our of­fi­cers will use what we have. As we con­tin­ue, we en­sure that not just the body cam is go­ing to speak to in­tegri­ty, we will en­sure a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to all our shoot­ings to en­sure that lev­el of in­tegri­ty in what we do.”

Ben­jamin, in a sub­se­quent in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, said he could not say why the PCA has not re­ceived any body cam­era footage in eight years.

“Pri­or to the PCA and body cam­eras, the PCA had ways of find­ing out what hap­pened on a scene. And body cam­eras are there for four rea­sons, as far as I am con­cerned. That be­ing said, if the body cams are not used, there are oth­er ways in which PCA can get ev­i­dence as to what tran­spired. So, I am say­ing the big deal about body cam should not hin­der them from do­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and get­ting the in­for­ma­tion.”

He said the four rea­sons in­clud­ed im­prov­ing po­lice safe­ty, in­creas­ing ev­i­dence qual­i­ty, re­duc­ing civil­ian com­plaints, and re­duc­ing agency li­a­bil­i­ty.

Last year, 3,000 more body cam­eras were or­dered for the TTPS, but Ben­jamin could not say how soon they would ar­rive.

Mean­while, Ben­jamin said the po­lice ex­ec­u­tive met with Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre of­fi­cials to ex­pe­dite the re­lease of firearms held there fol­low­ing po­lice-in­volved shoot­ings.

“I think that we have made some nice progress. Re­cent­ly, we were able to re­lease a tiny sum in terms of firearms, and we be­lieve that we will see a con­tin­u­al in­crease in firearms be­ing re­leased, and even a faster process or bet­ter process where it will not take that long when po­lice shoot­ing takes place.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored