Holness backs push for cameras on cops

OPPOSITION LEADER Andrew Holness has given conditional support to a proposal that police personnel be fitted with cameras to record their activities while carrying out security operations.

However, he wants the Government to invest much more in the use of technology to fight crime.

"I am not going to pour cold water on the attempt of putting in cameras because it is our view that greater technology, greater infusion of cutting-edge technology must be brought into the whole business of crime fighting ... . It is something that could have some positive effect, certainly on acting as a deterrent on the police themselves to break the law," he told yesterday's annual general meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Area Council One at the Olympic Gardens Civic Centre, St Andrew.

Technology report

Holness declared that prior to that proposal, he had tasked members of the Shadow Cabinet to do a comprehensive report on how to integrate technology into crime fighting. In fact, he wants to see closed circuit television put to greater use locally as a means of crime deterrence and detection.

He explained why: "That one don't have any discretion that when I'm going to commit the crime, I turn it off. That one is always on (so) it is something that we need to look at and make a serious investment. I know we have it in limited areas, but the Government must make an attempt at expanding."

Holness also pushed for the compulsory registration upon birth of all Jamaicans in order to capture their vital information which would be entered into a national database and which could be used to identify and track people who break the law.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com