Opinion: Police should now start using body-cam

Should we be surprised that police did not find their own fault in the assault of Rabby, the Bangladesh Bank official, who was picked up by a patrol police team while he was coming out of an ATM booth late in the night, tortured and then robbed?

Not at all. After all there is a Bangla saying 'a crow does not feast on another crow'. The police report that was submitted to the Supreme Court today actually once again made all of us vulnerable and fearful of what may have happened to an ordinary citizen when they fall into the wrong hands of our law enforcers.

There was plenty of evidence that Rabby was indeed tortured and robbed. Unless his friends had arrived on receiving his phone call, he could have ended up in a worse situation.

Why should the cops detain him for five hours in the name of a body search? Why should they take him to all the creepy places? Why and why? We know the answers, only the police probe report did not find them.

We have so often heard of such horrific encounters with police. Many of the victims even do not feel like complaining. And who do they complain to? Police today are working with such high-handedness that the ordinary citizens are muted.

We strongly believe such incidents should not be probed by police themselves but by a separate body. The National Human Rights Commission can coordinate such probes. 

But more than that we believe time has come for police to start using body-cam before any stop-and-search. They must switch on their camera before intercepting any one. The whole incident should be recorded so that this can later be checked to verify allegations of mistreatment or torture.