Accountability is one of the watchwords of a South African society beset by criminal malfeasance. Moreover, with the recognition that bad apples can be found in the ranks of the protectors as well, the question ‘who watches the watchmen?’ has never been more pertinent.
This has led directly to the rise of body-worn cameras as a means of increasing accountability, productivity and limiting unsavoury behaviour by those generally tasked with serving and protecting the public.
According to Danani Longwe, GM for Motorola SA, body-worn cameras can prove useful across a number of vertical sectors, most notably that of public safety. Whether these cameras are worn by police, traffic officers, domestic security operations, corporate security personnel or even emergency services, they provide a whole new level of accountability.
“Research shows that the mere presence of such a camera can play a significant role in improving relations and trust between the police and ordinary citizens. It increases the user’s legitimacy and provides a much greater level of clarity with regard to any incident responses. Moreover, it is a known fact that people generally react differently – usually more politely and less aggressively – when they know they are being recorded,” he explains.
“Although these cameras have been in use for some time in other markets, in SA the interest expressed in these devices is more recent. There is currently a lot of research work being undertaken behind the scenes to understand the best use-case scenarios. These include questions such as when to trigger a recording and whether the user must legally indicate at the outset that they are actually undertaking a recording.”
Longwe adds that additional challenges include issues around who is allowed to access such recordings. This has ramifications for a recording’s admissibility in court, as it is necessary to be able to prove that it has not been tampered with. Another challenge is how long it must be kept before being deleted.
“Nonetheless, the benefits are obvious, as highlighted by a recent UK survey of law enforcement users that indicated that 91% of criminal cases where body-worn video was involved, resulted in an early guilty plea prior to trial, saving valuable time and resources.
“Body-worn cameras suit the SA environment perfectly, as there have been several instances in the past where police have been taken to court because it has been claimed they failed to follow procedure. With a body-worn camera, it will be much simpler to prove whether they followed the letter of the law.”
He believes that the key here lies in the chain of custody – one needs to be able to demonstrate that the solution is tamper proof – as an immutable chain should reduce stress on policemen, up conviction rates and ultimately save time and money across the entire justice system.
“Moreover, there are several options with regard to how recordings can be initiated. A recording can be pre-emptive, where it records behind scenes; it can be triggered by the user; and it can even be linked to a radio frequency (RF) tag in a gun holster, so it is triggered whenever the gun is drawn. As for the chain of custody, all recordings are saved in a secure manner and when the user enters a secure WiFi zone, videos are automatically downloaded to a secure central repository.”
“The key here is accountability,” he continues, “as the main goal of these cameras is to ensure that the users are doing what they are supposed to. These cameras have even been deployed in the UK within a large supermarket chain that had experienced an increase in in-store crime, notably violence against staff members and shoplifting. The deployment rapidly led to a decrease in such incidents.”
According to Longwe, the cameras have built-in encryption, ensuring that a user cannot delete anything, and recordings are only transmitted into a vault once the device picks up that it is in a prescribed secure WiFi zone, or it is placed on its docking station to charge. Once in the vault, it is ‘watermarked’ according to video recording standards, and access is tightly restricted to only those who have clearance to view it.
“In the next couple of years, I expect there will be a huge uptake of this technology, which is improving all the time – plans are already afoot to enable these cameras to begin recording automatically the moment they register a gunshot, for example. What is critical to understand, though, is that while it is the perfect tool for many things, it cannot be a success in isolation, it needs to be combined with other modern technologies within a sophisticated command centre.
“Only by linking a range of new technologies, for example, a mature AI capability that enables a recording to begin automatically whenever a parameter is breached, can we truly improve the way critical services are delivered to the public. After all, body-worn cameras are all about creating safer cities, using a smart technology that dovetails nicely with the broader ‘smart city’ concept,” he concludes.
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