From September 1, a number of traffic police officers will have cameras on their uniforms. The traffic police received 60 cameras from the US Department of Justice. Initially, the cameras will be used on sections of the highway in the vicinity of Belgrade and in interceptors throughout the country.
The head of the traffic police department of the MUP of Serbia, Slaviša Lakićević, points out that the purpose of the recording is to document the application of police powers, for analysis, training and improvement of work, but also to prevent abuses by police officers, as well as corruption.
"We will not use these cameras to process criminal acts and misdemeanors." They are used only for audio and video recording or documenting the actions of police officers to make their work legal, professional and responsible. And that there will be evidence when there is a need for it," Lakićević specified for RTS.
It must be said that it is being filmed.
Lakićević says that the policeman will have the obligation to inform citizens that his intervention will be audio-video recorded. Also, he is obliged to submit all the data he records to his immediate superior and enter them in the order for the execution of the official task.
Only authorized members of the traffic police will have access to the data, and the recorded video and audio material will be stored for 45 days, after which it will be deleted automatically.
When asked who are the authorized persons who would have access to this data, Lakićević says that it will be immediate superiors and officers from internal control, as well as those who receive the task of reviewing a certain intervention or police authorization.
"We have a working group that is already implementing this to be used in all lines of work of the MUP in the police directorate. We hope that by the end of the year, all traffic officers will have this camera and use it," said the head of the Traffic Police Administration.
Unnecessary fear
Milan Božović from the Committee for Traffic Safety says for Euronews Serbia that in this case there is no fear of misuse of data because, as he says, the data is kept by the competent authorities.
"State bodies have an obligation to keep certain data that must not be made public." It is applied everywhere in the world, including here. If they were to talk about abuse, then they would come to the point that you must not give your social security number to anyone - neither the municipality, nor the tax office, and the like. Then there shouldn't even be services that have your data," he explains.
It's different in front of the cameras
How is it "time" wrote, practice has shown that citizens often change their behavior towards police officers when they are informed that the conversation is being recorded. Cameras can prevent the use of force in some situations. This method improves the interaction between police officers and road users.
Faster resolution of complaints and lawsuits from citizens citing wrongful enforcement of the law, excessive use of force or other forms of illegal behavior is also one of the advantages of using these cameras.
Corroborative evidence obtained in this way, recorded data, image, video, sound can be used as evidence in arrest or criminal prosecution, as well as in documenting the occurrence and nature of various types of violations.
BG/RTS/Euronews Serbia
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