Smile...you’re on police camera
POLICE officers patrolling in Nuneaton are being kitted out with Robcop-type cameras on their uniforms.
This means the officers, members of Nuneaton Safer Neighbourhood Team, can capture evidence on the cameras, and this may be used to help bring more cases to court.
The roll-out of the cameras this week follows the announcement in December last year that all Warwickshire Police Force officers would be issued with body-worn cameras.
At the time, Philip Seccombe, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said that the cameras were part of a major programme of technology modernisation across the force.
“This significant investment in new technology is great news, both for frontline police officers and also for the public,” he said.
“Body-worn cameras will help officers to achieve better outcomes and capture important evidence to bring cases to court. Speaking to officers, I know this is something that they welcome.
“Body-worn video can also help to enhance their safety when they deal with challenging situations, as people often modify their behaviour and become less aggressive when they know they are being recorded on camera and that evidence can be used in court.
“Having a clear and irrefutable picture of what has happened in any incident is valuable, not only from an evidential perspective, but also because it provides the public with a record of how the police have acted.
“This greater openness and transparency will be very beneficial, for example when dealing with complaints against officers, where I believe it will help to reduce the numbers of illegitimate allegations being made, while at the same time allowing the thorough investigation of legitimate complaints to be carried out in a much more efficient and timely way.”
The cameras will be attached to police officers’ uniforms to capture video and audio evidence.
It has been stressed that they do not continuously record, as under the Data Protection Act 1998, police officers have a duty to inform a person that their actions are being recorded.