Minister Musa Says Not All Police Interactions on Video Constitute Abuse
Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries, Kareem Musa says his ministry is doing a lot to crack down on reports of police brutality. Minster Musa says he personally reviews many of these allegations, often captured in videos, and where necessary, he follows up to ensure action is taken. But even with measures in place at the Professional Standards Branch, Minister Musa concedes that reports of police brutality persist. Here is what he told the hosts of the Open Your Eyes Morning Show about what his ministry is doing to address the issue.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
“It continues today, and I have to say I get a lot of footages. People feel that once you take a video of police officers interacting with them, that automatically it becomes an instance of abuse, that is not the case. I tell you I stand for that on principle, against police brutality. A lot of citizens forward them to me. And a lot of them are not police brutality. But, in fact, police officers just doing their jobs. What you find is, when police officers go into certain areas to do their search, there is sort of a mob gathering of people coming around, and all of them filming what the police officers are doing. It makes it exceedingly difficult for officers to do their jobs. So, it is not every instance that amounts to police brutality. But those that do, we have very strict policy in our police department now. I meet regularly with the head of professional standard branch to get a report, all of the officers who have violated citizens in the country, and who we have taken actions against. So there is that kind of accountability and transparency, and that that regular engagement with professional standards branch.”
According to Minister Musa, discussions are being held with the Commissioner of Police to implement the use of body cameras for police officers. Musa argues that these cams would give a truer picture of what transpired in any given situation.
