00:00Police Commissioner Alistair Guevara said officers were wearing the body cameras during the carnival period, although the device may not
00:07have been visible to some.
00:09We have just 180 body cameras available for service in the TTPS and they have been distributed throughout the entire
00:17trailer and Tobago.
00:19He said he had long supported the use of body cameras and had utilized them in previous roles, including during
00:25interviews.
00:26The Commissioner said members of the TTPS were not opposed to wearing body cameras, but the service currently did not
00:33have sufficient devices available due to circumstances beyond its control.
00:38He outlined concerns regarding a previous procurement arrangement under a former Commissioner, where a total of 1,000 body cameras
00:47were acquired at a cost of $3.4 million with an additional $600,000 for a Bluetooth feature.
00:54Commissioner Guevara further stated that licensing and maintenance for the cameras for the period 2021-2025 amounted to $22 million,
01:07bringing the average cost per unit to approximately $34,000.
01:13He reiterated that such a sum was too much and he would not have signed such a contract.
01:20He also said the body camera contract was interwoven with an existing GPS contract within the TTPS and that he
01:29had been called upon between last year and this year to pay $100 million in relation to that arrangement.
01:37He said he decided to stop the contract as he could not justify continuing payments of that magnitude when body
01:45cameras could be acquired at a lower cost.
01:48And because the licenses were not renewed, he implied that most of these 1,000 body cameras were currently not
01:56functional.
01:57Despite this, Guevara says he is exploring methods of reappropriating the existing devices through an alternative licensing arrangement that could
02:09be managed internally.
02:10He said the service was looking for devices that could be administered internally to avoid recurring international licensing costs.
02:20Alexander Brussel, TV6 News.
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