Body cameras must for police, orders Manila SC
MANILA: The Supreme Court (SC) has adopted a resolution requiring the police and other law enforcers to wear body cameras as well as carry recording devices in the implementation of arrest or search warrants issued by regional courts in response to increasing requests especially from human rights advocates.
In the same resolution, the SC also stopped regional court judges in Manila and Quezon City, both in Metro Manila, from issuing search warrants to law enforcers outside their territorial jurisdictions following complaints of abuse and killings of activists.
The tribunal explained the police would use the body camera and the alternative recording device to capture and record relevant incidents during the implementation of search warrants and must be worn in “conspicuous location,” meaning it should be done in plain sight.
Among others, the law enforcers must notify the persons who will be arrested will be recorded, and that the cameras’ video and audio functions must be activated as soon as the operation starts, according to the SC.
The tribunal warned: “Failure to observe the requirement of using the body worn cameras or alternative recording devices, without reasonable grounds, during the execution of the search warrant shall render the evidence obtained inadmissible for the prosecution of the offense for which the search warrant was applied.”
It also warned that a law enforcer who disregards the strict guidelines on the use of body cameras would be held in contempt by the court.
It likewise recognised that state agents needed to turn off at certain times for their security such cameras to protect the identities of witnesses and to ensure the success of their operations.
At the same time, the SC pruned the special power of Manila and Quezon City court judges to issue search warrants beyond their regional regions.
Human rights groups lamented that these judicial orders had become virtual “death warrants” for political activists and others who had been “Red-tagged” by the government.