The National Police Agency has decided to introduce body cameras for police officers in Japan on a trial basis starting in the latter half of August.

The agency said on July 24 that the trial is aimed at determining the effectiveness of wearable cameras and any issues involving them.

The tests will be conducted in three categories -- community policing, traffic enforcement and crowd security activities.

For community policing and traffic enforcement, the body cams will be used to check whether police officers handled their duties appropriately while pertinent footage will be stored as evidence in cases where crimes and accidents happen to be recorded.

The cameras for these two categories will have red lights that indicate they are recording what is happening.

For community policing, the agency will distribute 39 cameras to the Metropolitan Police Department and the Osaka and Fukuoka prefectural police for a three-month trial.

For traffic enforcement, it will deploy 18 cameras to the Aichi, Niigata and Kochi prefectural police for a six-month observation.

In terms of crowd safety activities, the cameras will record places like event venues and train stations and send the footage to senior officers in charge of remotely controlling public security to help them take proper command.

The agency will send 18 cameras to the Hokkaido, Iwate, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Ishikawa, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kagawa and Kagoshima prefectural police for a year-long trial.

Crowd security cameras come in two sizes, and police officers are scheduled to wear armbands to indicate that filming is in progress when they use the smaller camera or take videos in the dark.

The recorded footage data for community policing will be automatically deleted after 90 days, those for traffic control will be stored for three months and deleted with the approval of an operational manager, and those for crowd security will be automatically erased after one week.

The agency plans to make budget requests for full-fledged introduction of body cameras for police officers based on the results of the trial.