Why can’t the police, soldiers wear body cameras on galamsey sites? – Security expert asks

Security analyst, Adam Bonaa has wondered why security operatives sent to various mining communities to arrest illegal miners do not put on body cameras.

He averred that the police service has in its possession body cameras and these cameras, when given to the security operatives can help fight galamsey.

According to the security analyst, footages of events that happens on the mining sites could be either livestreamed or recorded to enable transparency in the fight against illegal mining in the country.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, Adam Bonaa said, “Body cameras have been used in the US, UK and other jurisdictions to fight crime and so if we have body cameras, why can’t we also use them to fight illegal mining in this country?”

“Instead of sending security department to these mining communities without any supervision, I know the police have in their custody as we speak body cameras. These body cameras can be used to fight illegal mining. Arm every security operative who have been mandated by law or by the state to go and get rid of illegal miners in these protected areas. Let them wear body cameras that are likely to stream live videos to a control room or a recorded video so that when they come back, these videos are played back for us to know whether indeed, they went there to take bribes or they went there to fight illegal mining," he stated.

His comments come after news broke that 19 people who claim to be national security operatives were apprehended by the police in the Eastern Region for illegally mining gold in the Atewa forest reserve.

The suspects who were wearing military uniforms, according to the Kade District manager of the forestry Commission, invaded the reserve in Akyem-Akateng onboard a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 with sophisticated rifles on the dawn of Tuesday under the guise of clamping down on illegal miners.