Support for victims ‘biggest motivation’ for rollout of BWV
Officers at Humberside Police are being issued with state-of-the-art body-worn video (BWV) cameras.
The phased rollout is already underway and over the next year the force will be training almost 1,700 officers, police community support officers and staff in their use.
One of the Hull policing teams is already using the cameras. Further officers and staff in the city will then be trained, followed by those in North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and finally the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The cameras are the latest design from Reveal Media and feature a front-facing screen – which means members of the public can see what is being recorded. They also have a movable camera head, allowing officers to get different angles without having to unclip the camera, while hardware encryption ensures that video footage is “safe and secure” from the moment it is recorded.
Assistant Chief Constable Chris Noble said: “We are excited to have such new and cutting-edge technology to help us serve the communities in our area.
“The biggest motivation for rolling out this technology is to support victims – especially victims of domestic abuse.
“If just one perpetrator is put before the courts, who otherwise would have escaped justice, then the rollout of the cameras will have been worth all of the expense and complexities.”
Humberside Police says BWV will allow officers to capture evidence in a way that cannot be replicated in a written statement, allowing them to harness the emotion of a situation as well as clearly recording every detail from a scene.
Some forces have seen an increase in the number of suspects they are able to charge in relation to domestic abuse, thanks to evidence captured on video at the scene.
When Queensland Police Service in Australia, for example, began using body-worn camera footage in the court when dealing with cases of domestic violence, it saw a 60 to 70 per cent drop in police summary hearings and an increase of guilty pleas, which encouraged a 22 per cent rise in reported cases (https://uk.axon.com).
Other forces have noted an increase in early guilty pleas when footage from body-worn cameras is shown in court – leading to a reduction in the number of vulnerable victims having to attend and give evidence at trial.
There is also evidence to suggest that people who had been behaving violently or in a disruptive way have improved their behaviour when they see they are being recorded, reducing verbal and physical aggression towards police officers and other members of the public.
The cameras also provide an impartial and accurate picture of events, enabling greater clarity around complaints against officers and accountability where officers have to use force.
Ken Marsh, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, says it has seen a “30 per cent drop in complaints” since BWV cameras were rolled out in the capital.
And the Police Federation of England and Wales is “hugely supportive” of BWV. Vice-chair Calum Macleod said: “First and foremost, it has the potential to protect our members by deterring physical attacks and also preventing bogus and malicious allegations from gaining traction. It has also been proven to result in higher sentences when officers are attacked, so we welcome the wider rollout of this particular piece of kit.”
Humberside police and crime commissioner Keith Hunter added: “The benefits of this type of equipment are beginning to be recognised and I hope and anticipate that there will be fewer assaults on officers, that victims will have to attend court less frequently and that more guilty people will be convicted.”
