Officers report 300 faults with body cameras

MORE than 300 faults with Police Scotland’s body-worn cameras have been logged in three years.

The cameras were trialled in Aberdeen and rolled out across Moray and Aberdeenshire in 2012.

Data obtained by BBC Scotland found that over a three-year period the number of faults reported with the system doubled.

Police Scotland said most problems had been with its own computers, not the cameras themselves.

Officers have logged 302 faults in the force’s IT portal since 2013. Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: ‘There has been in the region of 300 faults reported, but to give some context around that, let’s take Queen Street station in Aberdeen.

‘Body-worn cameras have been deployed there in excess of 200,000 times over the period of the trial so the numbers are a tiny, tiny percentage of that, and I think what’s more important are the benefits that have come from the delivery of the bodyworn videos in the North-East.

‘We’ve heard from the people of Aberdeen and how positive they are about it and we’ve heard from senior officers of some of the benefits, including officer safety, a reduction in police officers having to go to court and most importantly as a result of that a reduction in the number of victims that have to attend at court to give evidence.’

Mr Williams said lessons learned in the North-East would be taken into account if the force were to consider the use of body-worn cameras for potential development.

Andrea MacDonald, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said there were concerns the force does not have the infrastructure to support the cameras.

She said: ‘What we’re concerned about is the cost in the current financial climate for the force which as you know is very dire. We’re also concerned that our IT infrastructure is creaking and worried that it would not be able to cope with body-worn cameras at the present time.’

‘People are positive about them’