Should the Code of Misdemeanour Procedure amendment, approved by government last night, enter into force, police officers will trade filling misdemeanour reports for video recordings – which will serve as official physical evidence.
Police to videorecord testimonies
8th February 2013, 10:51
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«Currently, misdemeanour procedures come with loads of paper, the aim being to create functional norms and frameworks for people’s testimonies to be recorded,» said Minister of Interior Affairs Ken-Marti Vaher. According to Mr Vaher, the amendment will help save time.
«We handle about 200,000 misdemeanour proceedings a year, 50,000 of those related to traffic,» said the minister. At the moment, recording of all details takes up to 45 minutes; after the amendment, a video recording can be used as evidence, replacing a large number of «paper records» with video.
«Talking about resources, it means cutting the time of misdemeanour proceedings down to 20 minutes,» said Mr Vaher. According to the minister, this serves to save yearly salaries of 30 officials and 60,000-70,000 man-hours a year.