Police officers in the Canton Sarajevo (CS) should soon wear cameras on their uniforms for recording contacts with citizens, which has the great advantage of monitoring the work of police officers or for gathering evidence, while experts point out concerns about possible violations of the right to the protection of personal data and storage of materials.
According to the announcement of the Minister of Internal Affairs of CS (Ministry of internal affairs of CS) Admir Katica, body cameras should be on the uniforms of police officers in this canton in the first half of 2024. It is about a project that was initiated two years ago and equipment that would enable the recording of audio and video recordings, for the purpose of gathering evidence in unforeseen situations.
The practice of the existence of such technological solutions, which can help police officers in their work, but also detect irregularities committed by police officers, has been present in the world for almost two decades, according to research by the Center for Security Studies. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is lagging behind when it comes to such solutions, the fact that at least one police agency is receiving equipment that will contribute to the more transparent work of the institutions entrusted with maintaining public order is encouraging.
“They can protect police officers while performing their work, primarily in cases of false and unfounded reports of violation of official duty and abuse of authority by police officers,” says Damir Tandara in a study on the importance and impact of body cameras in the work of police officers.
The lack of transparency of police agencies in our country, which the use of such technology could help eliminate, is one of the key problems that were previously discovered when investigating disciplinary procedures against police officers. This research has shown that hundreds of disciplinary proceedings against police officers have lapsed due to procedural deficiencies, and cases of police violence that have disturbed the public in BiH have gone unpunished, or lengthy proceedings are still ongoing.
Despite all the advantages, concerns about the new technology are brought about by the challenges of protecting human rights, that is, finding adequate ways to protect personal data, and security challenges related to the possible digital endangerment of collected data.
As the Center for Security Studies established in its research, the legal framework for the protection of personal data and human rights in BiH exists, but its adequate application is important. However, they add that the final solution should be much more complex and include factors such as specific situations in which cameras are used, proper use of equipment, methods of data collection, processing, and access rights, as well as mechanisms to prevent abuse of new technologies in the work of police officers.
“There is a whole series of doubts that arise, how citizens will be filmed by the police and how the recorded content will be stored, who will be able to access that content and how the use of that data and those recordings will then be controlled,” stated Midhat Izmirlija, professor of the Law Faculty of the University of Sarajevo, stating that these are just some of the rules that should be considered in order to protect personal data, Detektor reports.
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