Police video bill warning
Chief fears force faces huge bill over video proposals
SCOTLAND’S Chief Constable has warned plans for video cameras in police cars and interview rooms would bring a “huge expense” to his force.
Sir Stephen House is already trying to come up with what he has called “extreme measures” to try and balance his budget this new financial year.
But now he has signalled Police Scotland would face giant bills if it were to implement recommendations from judge Lord Bonomy to ensure all interviews were recorded on video.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson has shelved the recommendations until they could be reviewed as full package in the next Scottish Parliament after May 2016.
Speaking at a meeting of his main watchdog, the Scottish Police Authority, Sir Stephen said: “Some of the costs of the recommendations in Bonomy were significant.
“One of them was all police vehicles have internal video and audio recording, which would be a massive expense for an organisation.”
The Bonomy recommendations were designed to rebalance the scales of justice if the Scottish Government went ahead with its plans to abolish the age-old Scots Law safeguard of corroboration.
However, Mr Matheson has shelved plans to get rid of the safeguard, which ensures only cases where there are two individual pieces of corroborating evidence are brought to court.
Instead, he wants corroboration and Lord Bonomy’s mitigating proposals to be considered together as a package.
Police interviews at police stations are currently recorded on tapes but not filmed. Roadside interviews are conducted without being recorded.
Sir Stephen stressed that another initiative being considered by the police – universal roll-out body-worn cameras – may mean that such expense can be avoided.
He said: “To be fair to Lord Bonomy, I don’t think they expected we would have separate systems in cars and body-worn cameras. But it’s still going to be a huge expense to the public purse and our budget.”
The abolition of corroboration has now been removed from the Criminal Justice Bill due to come into force just ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections.
But the new legislation still contains significant changes, including the introduction of something similar to English powers to arrest people – rather than detain them – on suspicion of committing an offence.
Sir Stephen stressed this too would have huge implications for costs and extracting officers from the front line, especially as the introduction will coincide with Police Scotland’s much awaited new i6 nationwide computer system.
The chief constable was speaking in response to questions from Paul Rooney, the Labour councillor who chairs the authority’s finance subcommittee.
His force has still to identify £11m of savings this financial year. Finances, Sir Stephen and Mr Rooney have both warned, will remain tight for years to come.
‘‘ For all police vehicles to have internal video and audio recording would be a massive expense for an organisation