Malta’s Police Will Start Using Bodycams In 2021
Maltese police officers on patrol will start using bodycams early next year, Times of Malta reported.
A tender for the lease of 500 Bodycams for five years – amounting to an investment worth almost €1 million – has been awarded to Motorola Solutions Germany GmbH.
Calls for Maltese police officers to start carrying body cameras have become stronger in recent years, following a few suspicious incidents.
Last May, 48-year-old Ronnie Ghiller started throwing things at people from the roof of his Żabbar home. A large group of Rapid Intervention Unit officers showed up with a doctor and the stunned and sedated Ghiller.
He died soon after, having suffered a heart seizure as a result of the measures taken to stun and sedate him.
Ghiller, who was having serious issues lately and was becoming “obsessed” with the coronavirus according to his family, apparently began to act erratically when he saw a long queue of people forming outside a nearby shop that recently reopened.
13 years earlier, in May as well, Bastjan Borg’s sister kept calling the Qormi police station for help – Bastjan was acting erratically again and had gotten into a commotion with some people in the pjazza.
The police told her there wasn’t much they could do, so she went to sleep.
At around 1.30am, she was woken by a phone call and informed that police had shot her brother five times, killing him.
“We are currently awaiting delivery and this equipment is expected to be deployed early next year, following the necessary administrative set-up and training required,” a police spokesman told Times of Malta.
Bodycams are sealed, meaning that their footage cannot be tampered with.
The equipment will be handed to officers before they go out on patrol and returned at the end of every shift.