W. Visayas’ city police stations get body-worn cameras

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Only police stations in highly-urbanized and component cities in Western Visayas were issued with body-worn cameras.

Well, at least for now.

Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) spokesperson, said 256 units of body-worn cameras were allocated for the region.

In policing equipment, a body camera or wearable camera, also known as body worn video (BWV) or body-worn camera (BWC) or Bodycam (for short), is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system used to record events in which law enforcement officers are involved.

These are typically worn on the torso of the body on the officer’s uniform. Body worn cameras for policing are often similar to other body worn video equipment used by civilians, firefighters, or the military, but are designed to address specific requirements related to law enforcement.

Of the 256 BWCs, 16 were allocated to each police station under the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).

Passi City, the only component city in Iloilo province, and Roxas City Police Station in Capiz province will also get 16 body-worn cameras each.

The bulk of the PRO-6 allocation for body-worn cameras was given to the 12 component cities in Negros Occidental.

These include the city police stations in Bago, Cadiz, Escalante, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, La Carlota, Sagay, San Carlos, Silay, Sipalay, Talisay, and Victorias.

Malong said the cameras include desktops, docking stations, 4-bay network attached storage, monitors, UPS, and a smart SIM.

The provinces of Guimaras, Anrique, and Aklan have yet to get a single body-worm camera.

She said that the units were given to end users as early as March.

However, police operatives could not yet use the body-work cameras in the absence of implementing guidelines.

“There are legal questions that need to be ironed out,” Malong said.

It was gathered that 171 police stations all over the region were given body-worn cameras.