Lawmakers from Unión por la Patria, Claudia Neira and Federico Mochi, have introduced a bill to require City Police officers to implement body cameras on their uniforms. The initiative, obtained by Argentine News Agency, aims to "provide police with adequate technological tools to improve the quality of interventions and generate objective records of interactions between officers and citizens." According to the project's foundations, "the implementation of the devices must guarantee a training period for all agents of the City Police, as well as an adaptation schedule, accompanied by evaluations of the system's impact." Likewise, the Executive Branch, through the Superior Institute of Public Security, will provide the necessary means to incorporate the corresponding training for the proper use of the devices into the Initial Training Course for Officer Candidates of the City Police. Neira highlighted that this is "a technology that already works in the world and other provinces," and considered that the City of Buenos Aires "must incorporate it to protect neighbors and agents." "In the face of a series of events where the protocols for the progressive use of force have been violated, body cameras are a key tool," she remarked. And she clarified that the audio and video cameras "do not replace Justice, but they can make police actions transparent and record them." Regarding the functionality of the cameras, she detailed that they have a "pre-event mode" that automatically records the 60 seconds prior to manual activation, adding contextual information that can be very relevant for subsequent investigation to reconstruct the facts. It also includes a continuous recording mode, activated manually, to capture the entirety of the event in which the officer is involved. Meanwhile, when one camera is turned on, all nearby officers' cameras are activated by proximity. The Buenos Aires deputy indicated that the idea is to carry out a "progressive implementation throughout the force, prioritizing in a first stage the use of devices in contexts of high social sensitivity, where control is fundamental," such as popular neighborhoods, public demonstrations, and mass events, among others. "We propose a law that has a data control to guarantee the protection of personal data and prevent unauthorized dissemination or use of the images," Neira explained. In her view, "with the resources that the City Police has, it is incomprehensible that body cameras have not begun to be implemented in the officers' vests." "It is a technology that already exists in the country: it just has to be incorporated in the City," she demanded, and emphasized that "it is time for Jorge Macri to address the solutions that define people's lives." "In terms of security, slogans solve nothing. But a police force with resources for efficient and transparent action can," Neira concluded.
