The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Doubling of faults with police body cameras
Safety: Force’s computers to blame
More than 300 faults with Police Scotland’s bodyworn cameras have been logged in the past three years.
The cameras were initially trialled in Aberdeen and then rolled out across Moray and Aberdeenshire in 2012. Over a three-year period the number of faults reported with the system doubled.
Police Scotland said most problems had been with the force’s 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’s been in the region of 300 faults reported, but to give you some context around that, let’s take Queen Street station alone 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 body-worn videos in the north-east of Scotland,” added Mr Williams.
He said the force is consulting about what the future of policing in Scotland should look like in the next decade, which they are calling policing 2026.
If they were to consider the use of body-worn cameras for potential development they would take into account the lessons learned in the north-east, he said.
Mr Williams said the force has a “transformational budget” to change the organisation and move it forward, allowing them to consider the cost benefits of something like bodyworn video.
Andrea MacDonald, chairwoman of the Scottish Police Federation, said they were concerned 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 and we’re also concerned that our IT infrastructure is creaking and worried that it would not be able to cope with bodyworn cameras.
“I would hope it would be part of the wider 2026 programme to give time to take consideration of the public view of this and to look at what exactly we need to get the best cameras we need, and to make sure that our IT is fit for purpose and more importantly that the IT of our partners in the criminal justice system is fit for purpose, because it would be completely counter-productive if they didn’t have the IT to use the evidence that we present from the body-worn cameras.”