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Police Video Identification System Progressing Smoothly

June 2, 2009

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Five months after the implementation of the Video Identification Parade System, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has reported that it is progressing smoothly.
Speaking in an interview with JIS News Monday(June 1) at the Central Police Station in Kingston, Sergeant Roger Kelly of the Video Identification Unit, said that witnesses are much more comfortable attending video identification parades as opposed to the conventional identification sessions.
“In the video identification parade, the witnesses, they are more comfortable in the surroundings and they realise that…they’re only seeing a face, they’re not seeing a live person across the room, so witnesses are more comfortable with this type of parade,” he said.
He noted that the interesting feature of this system is that the police are able to identify people at a faster rate than with the conventional system. “We can do a video parade in less than half an hour, while in the conventional parade, in half an hour you have just started talking to the witness, and sometimes it takes hours just for the suspect to do selection of volunteers,” he pointed out.
Sergeant Kelly also outlined that the response from attorneys representing their clients has been very good. However, he said that there is need for more images in the database and is appealing to citizens to volunteer their images.
“There is this fear about pictures being taken and used otherwise. We do not keep records of individuals. We do not keep the photographs for any reference other than to use them as (images) in our database and this system is not linked to any other system, so the images remain here,” he assured.
The police began conducting video identification parades in January this year at designated locations in Linstead, St. Catherine; Ocho Rios, St. Ann; Mandeville, Manchester and the Central Police Station in Kingston.

Last Updated: August 26, 2013

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