BERLIN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The interior ministers of Germany's 16 federal states are meeting in Magdeburg on Wednesday to flesh out and pass a legislative proposal for all police officers across the country to be equipped with live cameras from 2019 onwards.
So-called "Body-Cams" are fitted to the uniform of security authorities and can assist law enforcement by recording evidence of illicit behavior which can subsequently be presented in courts. As of 2018, all German states except for Berlin and Brandenburg already use, or have at least tested, the surveillance technology.
Hesse, the home state of the financial hub of Frankfurt, was the first to equip its regional police force with Body-Cams in 2013. By 2017, a total of 347 video sequences had been secured locally which spawned 82 investigatory proceedings into offenses ranges from physical assault, over theft to resistance against law enforcement officers.
Speaking to the newspaper BILD on Wednesday, Hesse interior minister Peter Beuth (CDU) announced that his state was preparing to make a further 300 cameras available to police next year and urged other regional authorities to follow its example. "The Body-Cam should become part of the standard equipment of the police across the country as soon as possible", Beuth said.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician explained that the cameras were purposefully placed on the shoulders of police officers in Hesse where they were easily visible to all as a means to make offenders who might otherwise resort to violence against security authorities "think twice." According to BILD nearly 60,000 attacks were recorded against German police in 2017, the highest number ever measured.
The Federal Police Force, which is comprised of around 35,100 law enforcement officers and reports directly to the federal interior ministry in Berlin rather than state governments, also has plans to equip its uniforms with Body-Cams in the near future. "Experiences in individual countries have showed that mobile video technology can be used successfully to limit violent offenses against law enforcement officers", an internal assessment of the Federal Police Force seen by BILD reads.
The German population broadly appears to share the enthusiasm of its legislators for Body-Cams. In a recent opinion survey conducted by the Insa institute, a large majority of 70.7 percent of respondents said that "all police officers in Germany" should wear cameras on their uniforms. Only 13.3 percent opposed the measure, while a further 16 percent were undecided.
