At a press briefing, Bunting said the cameras will encourage professional behavior by police officers, improve transparency and evidence collection and head off unfair allegations of wrongdoing.
The security minister’s comments came as an independent commission that investigates charges of abuses by security forces is launching a probe into alleged homicides by policemen in Clarendon parish.
Bunting said that investigation was at a “sensitive stage” and he couldn’t comment on it.
“However, the administration views the issue of extrajudicial killings with the gravest concerns and is committed to the police being accountable for their actions” he said.
Human rights activists have repeatedly criticized the high number of fatal shootings by Jamaica’s nearly 10,000 police officers and residents of poor neighborhoods regularly protest what they insist are unjustified killings by lawmen.
Last year, 258 civilians were killed by security forces on the island of 2.7 million people. That was 39 more than the previous year.
Police say they are threatened by brazen suspects and the enormous amount of illegal guns on the streets. Last year, Jamaica had 1,197 homicides, a nine percent increase from 2012.
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