Procurement process for cops’ R334 million body cameras on

The Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday hosted a suppliers’ forum and presented the standard specifications and test parameters for the procurement of body-worn cameras with a budget of P334 million.

PNP Deputy Director General Archie Francisco Gamboa, led the forum and discussed the standard specifications and test parameters of the body-worn camera with 21 interested bidders.

The clamor for the use of body camera was sparked in part by the public's outrage due to the deaths of teenagers Kian Lloyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

The two were shot dead by the police in separate operations in August 2017.

According to Gamboa, the PNP crafted a number of specifications, among of which is the requirement for one body camera to have a 32-gigabyte (GB) storage which can be upgraded to 128 GB.

It must also have a battery life of eight hours, a built-in GPS locator and wifi, and must be 3G and 4G capable for real-time monitoring of operations.

The body camera must also have a date and time stamping to identify when the operation was conducted, and must be equipped with password security or other security features and encryption to avoid loss of data.

"This is the first time that the PNP will buy such and we don't want to go wrong, and we don't want to go to jail in the future," Gamboa said.

Aside from the specifications, the PNP also required the bidders to provide personal computer sets with warranty where the data from the body cameras would be uploaded for future reference.

It was also mentioned that bidders will have to provide a trainor's training to ensure that there would be enough PNP personnel who will manage the data that would be transmitted from the body-worn cameras, and a 24-hour service provider for each region.