Limerick is the second location to trial Body Worn Cameras following their introduction in Dublin in early June, which saw an overall positive reaction from the public, as to their necessary use.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, today launched the Body Worn Cameras proof of concept at Henry Street Garda station in Limerick city.
Limerick is the just the second of three pilot locations to test the use of Garda Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) before a national rollout.
The Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Act 2023 was signed into law just last December. The Act provides for Body Worn Cameras, Garda CCTV, automatic number plate recognition, and Community CCTV.
An Garda Síochána is undertaking three phased introductions as part of its proof of concepts stage. Three vendors have been chosen with different BWCs to be deployed in each trial location. The cameras in use in the DMR and Limerick are from different manufacturers.
The pilot roll-out of BWCs will continue later this year in Waterford. When complete, the three-phased pilot will inform their introduction in Garda Stations nationwide.
Each BWC can record footage to its own internal encrypted storage, which will be uploaded when the Garda docks the camera in a Garda station. The camera footage is uploaded at the end of a shift so it can be used as evidence at court or is deleted after an agreed time, if it is not required as evidence.
All of the digital imagery collected by BWCs will be managed by a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS).
Commissioner Harris also warned Garda members that they will face dismissal from the force, and potential criminal prosecution, if they are found to have shared or leaked footage of incidents captured on Garda BWCs.
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