THE Police Service has a total of 1,160 body cameras which its officers can use in their tactical duties in the field.

Additional body cameras are also being sourced, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said in response to a question from Independent Senator Paul Richards in the Senate on Tuesday.

"Very happily. I can report that the TT Police Service is currently in the distribution phase of body cameras, having very recently acquired an additional 1,000 units for use by officers."

Before the acquistion of these cameras, Hinds said the police "already had in its armoury, so to speak, 160 functional body cameras in use.'

Altogether, he continued, the police now have 1,160 body cameras.

"These have and are being deployed to maximum, strategic effort, across the TT Police Service, in the fight against crime and in the spirit of transparency and all the other positives that such cameras could offer."

Hinds did not have information on the cost of the 1,000 body cameras acquired, but promised to provide that information at a later date.

Richards asked if additional body cameras were being acquired.

Hinds replied," A very logical and sensible follow-up on the previous question, and the answer, with equal pleasure, is absolutely, yes."

He could not say how many more cameras were being acquired..

But he told Richards, "I give you the assurance that more are in contemplation and we will continue to expand the use of body cameras, and our ambition is, of course, to make them a routine part of policing, for the reasons I have offered."

Hinds also said the police have a policy on the maintenance of the cameras.

"That policy will naturally evolve and be refined as the circumstances demand."

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