Romanian police could use body cameras to record talks with drivers

The Romanian Police has launched a pilot project under which police officers in public safety and public order structures will start using body-worn cameras to record discussions with citizens in traffic. “The General Police Inspectorate is currently working on a pilot project on equipping police officers in public order and safety structures with body-worn cameras. Through this project, we want to see if this is useful for traffic police,” said Georgian Dragan, the spokesperson of the Romanian General Police Inspectorate (IGPR). “The body-worn cameras can be useful for both policemen, because they can film the discussions with the citizens in traffic, and citizens, because they can use them as evidence in some cases,” he added. At first, law-enforcement officers in two big cities in Romania will be equipped with 32 such cameras. However, the IGPR spokesperson didn’t announce the name of these cities. Based on the results of the pilot project, the authorities will expand the system. The pilot project implemented by IGPR comes after former MP Cristian Boureanu was recently placed under preventive arrest for 30 days after an incident in traffic. The authorities have opened a criminal investigation in this case after Boureanu insulted and injured traffic police officers. Several video recordings of the incident appeared in the media in recent days. Bucharest could have special Police unit dedicated to animal protection by end-2017 Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Politia Romana on Facebook)