CoP reveals current body cams only have two hours of battery life

As Par­lia­ment pre­pares to de­bate the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill to­day, a dis­pute over the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) body-worn cam­era ca­pac­i­ty has raised fresh ques­tions about the safe­guards that would ac­com­pa­ny the ex­pand­ed po­lice pow­ers pro­posed un­der the leg­is­la­tion.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro said yes­ter­day that just over 100 body cam­eras were cur­rent­ly op­er­a­tional with­in the TTPS. How­ev­er, for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith chal­lenged that claim, dis­put­ing the re­port­ed bat­tery lim­i­ta­tions of the de­vices and ques­tion­ing what had be­come of hun­dreds of cam­eras ac­quired dur­ing his tenure.

Gue­var­ro was speak­ing to re­porters at the open­ing of the Grand Bazaar Po­lice Post, where he re­vealed that the TTPS was in the process of procur­ing ad­di­tion­al body cam­eras. He did not in­di­cate when the new de­vices were ex­pect­ed to ar­rive.