INDECOM urges Jamaica police to rethink body camera deployment

INDECOM Commissioner Hugh Faulkner is urging a major review of how body-worn cameras are assigned across the Jamaica Constabulary Force, arguing that the technology should be concentrated on operations where the risk of deadly force and disputed evidence is highest.

Speaking at a Jamaicans for Justice policy roundtable on body-worn cameras in law enforcement at a New Kingston hotel on May 27, Faulkner said most of the JCF’s cameras are now with the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, whose members are mainly deployed in commercial areas.

He said INDECOM views that pattern as misaligned with the JCF’s operational and legal needs, especially against the background of the high number of police-involved fatalities. Faulkner said priority should instead go to planned operations, particularly where officers are likely to face armed suspects.

The INDECOM head acknowledged that Jamaican police operate in a difficult security environment, facing armed gangs, organised criminal networks, contract killings, extortion and rising gun violence. He said officers often enter dangerous situations without knowing who may resist, who may be injured, or whether they will get home safely. At the same time, he said state power must be used transparently, lawfully and proportionately, with proper review.

Faulkner noted that the police high command has said 1,500 body-worn cameras are deployed daily across the force. He said the central question is whether they are being placed where accountability risks and evidentiary needs are greatest, including tactical teams, searches under warrant, high-risk arrests and targeted firearm raids.

He contrasted commercial districts, where witnesses, CCTV and JamaicaEye cameras are more likely to be present, with remote communities, private premises and other settings where many fatal police encounters occur without independent observers.

Faulkner also said that from January to April this year, five shooting incidents involved officers who were issued body-worn cameras. Those cases included one fatal shooting, two shooting injuries and two firearm-discharge incidents, but no video was recorded. Explanations included a missing uniform clip, cameras not being activated, an officer not getting time to record, a device remaining in buffer mode, and an instruction from another officer to switch a camera off.

He said there was no indication that body-worn cameras were used in incidents in 2025 when more than 300 civilians were shot dead by police. In 2024, he said, cameras were deployed in five spontaneous shooting-injury incidents and one planned operation that ended in a fatality, but footage was available in only one spontaneous shooting case.