警察官けいさつかんの胸むねや頭あたまに小型こがたのカメラ取締とりしまりの際さいのトラブル防止ぼうし

In order to prevent troubles during police questioning or traffic violation crackdowns, a pilot project will begin in August in police departments in 13 prefectures, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka, where small wearable cameras will be attached to police officers’ chests to record the situation during police activities.

In police questioning or traffic violation crackdowns, there are cases where police officers are subjected to abusive language, or complaints are filed against officers for allegedly lacking consideration in their behavior. Additionally, there are instances where such interactions are filmed, and edited clips are spread on social media.

The National Police Agency will launch a pilot program in late August in which police officers in 13 prefectures will use small wearable cameras attached to their chests or heads to record situations, in order to prevent such troubles and preserve evidence of incidents witnessed by officers.

The project will be carried out through three types of police activities: among them, for police questioning by officers at police boxes, cameras will be deployed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Osaka, and Fukuoka; for traffic violation enforcement, in Aichi, Niigata, and Kochi; and for crowd control at events such as fireworks festivals, in Hokkaido, Iwate, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Kanagawa, Ishikawa, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kagawa, and Kagoshima, with a total of 76 cameras to be installed.

The cameras are attached to police officers chests or heads, and they wear armbands to make it clear to those around them that filming is taking place. The recorded footage is deleted after about one week to three months.

The projects will be carried out for each activity over a period of three months to one year, and their effectiveness will be evaluated. The National Police Agency aims to deploy them to police forces nationwide as early as fiscal year 2027.