The killing of 17-year-old Jerhod “Jemboy” Baltazar has prompted lawmakers from both chambers of Congress to push for the passage of a law mandating the use of body cameras in all law enforcement operations, after the chief of Navotas City police bared that one of the cops who mistook Baltazar as their suspect did not turn on his body-worn camera during the botched operation.
The Philippine National Police had previously issued a memorandum in 2021 ordering all cops to use body-worn cameras in the execution of search and arrest warrants, or during a warrantless arrest to deter police misconduct. The memorandum reinforced the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Rules on the Use of Body-World Cameras in the same year.
However, an internal memorandum does not have the legal authority of the law, which cannot be as easily scrapped and will require congressional steps to be repealed.
Senate Bill 1057, or the proposed Police On-Body Cam Act, will require all law enforcers to use on-body cameras and leave these turned on and running until they wrap up operations. The bill was filed in 2022 and is pending at the committee level.
House Bill 8352 also requires law enforcement officers to wear body cameras in conducting operations, with the additional requirement of the use of dashboard cameras.
Navotas cops killed Baltazar while pursuing a suspect in a shooting incident on August 2, in what the Philippine National Police described as a case of “mistaken identity.” If it was truly an honest mistake and not a result of poor training and judgement, body camera footage could’ve helped their case. However, it was conveniently left off during the operation where an innocent 17-year-old was killed by the police.
The Navotas police chief also said that some police personnel have left their body cameras off in previous operations, with some cops saying the devices had run out of batteries, which shouldn’t be an excuse if there was stricter enforcement of that rule on law enforcers.
The advancement of technology that has allowed video cameras to be smaller and ubiquitous, and it is a tool that should help a well-trained police force do its job better by providing the evidence that it is capable of adhering to the rules of engagement and during operations, especially when firearms are involved. If cops that have nothing to hide shouldn’t be afraid to use body cameras, then why does it seem that ours are hesitant and need to be forced to do it with a law?*
