POLICE are to hold large-scale trials of body-worn video cameras for patrol officers. A trial in London will see 500 devices in use across 10 boroughs. The police say the cameras will allow them to capture evidence from crime scenes. But Freedom of Information campaigners say the cameras mean everyone is now under suspicion. So is Dixon of Dock Green being replaced by Robocop?
Devon & Cornwall Police were actually in on this right at the start. Officers in Plymouth piloted head cameras in 2006, primarily to target cases of domestic abuse. The six-month Home Office trial was judged a success and saw a reduction in crime. But the force said the system was too expensive and plans were made to scale them back for use only on major events.
Now the idea is back, as the Government announced that by July 2016 all criminal courts are due to be operating digitally. Police officers will be expected to record interviews at crime scenes on mobile devices and deliver filmed evidence online under a digital court initiative announced by the Ministry of Justice. So what has changed?
One factor must be the high-profile scandals that have rocked public confidence in the police – the Plebgate scandal, the Hillsborough cover-up and the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson in the 2009 London riots, to name but three.
The fact is that the police are now under more scrutiny than ever before. Millions of people have smartphones with cameras, allowing them to film the police in action. So now the police are catching up.
The College of Policing, which is behind the new large-scale trials, has been studying the results from an American pilot study. Police officers in California issued with video cameras reported an 88 per cent reduction in complaints filed against officers and a 60 per cent fall in incidents where officers used force. That has to be good for the police as well as the public, and is to be welcomed.
We already have the technology to film our whole lives unfolding in front of us through initiatives like Google Glass, a tiny video camera worn on a headset not much different to a pair of glasses. Yes, we are becoming a nation increasingly under surveillance. It will soon be difficult to escape the cameras wherever we go.
