Turkish Cypriot police to start ‘wearing body cameras’

Police in north Cyprus have begun wearing body cameras, according to reports in Turkish Cypriot media.

According to a report by Ozgur Gazete on Thursday last week, the news paper published photographs of a police officer in Kyrenia appearing to be wearing a body camera, and reported that motorists in the town who had appealed fines issued for matters such as running red lights and not wearing seat belts were shown body camera footage as proof they had committed the crimes in question.

The newspaper added that Kyrenia is currently a “pilot area” for the rollout of body cameras.

The Turkish government earlier this year announced that all police officers there would be fitted with body cameras by 2025, with Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya saying the cameras would also be equipped with facial recognition technology.

He said the wearing of cameras would allow for “complaints, allegations, and the performance of other police duties to be evaluated more quickly”.