One body cam for every 8 police operatives in Mérida
In a small ceremony, Mayor Renán Barrera Concha presented Mérida police with 50 wearable body cameras. The number of cameras is tiny, however, compared to the number of municipal police on the force.
Merida’s municipal police employs 405 operatives and in 2020 had a budget of nearly 11 million pesos.
The cameras are to be used to record police activities and provide a greater degree of transparency.
“During this administration, we have placed great emphasis on properly equipping and training our officers. As a result, Mérida is one of the cities in the country with the highest levels of trust in local police,” said municipal police director Mario Arturo Romero Escalante.
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The footage captured by wearable police cameras will be routinely transferred to a secure system.
“The system is designed in such a way that it is impossible to tamper with footage,” said Romero Escalante.
There was no word regarding if and when more wearable cameras would be deployed, or if state and federal police are expected to adopt similar measures.
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer, adventure leader, and PhD candidate. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds multimedia, philosophy, and translation degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
