North Wales Police First To Have All Front Line Officers With Body Worn Cameras

Every front line police officer in North Wales will soon be wearing chest mounted video cameras – a first for Wales.

North Wales Police have taken just delivery of 301 extra body worn video kits and 50 docking stations and they’re being rolled out across the region.

They have been paid for out of the budget of North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, with a cost of £163,000 for the technology.

Body worn video cameras were first introduced in North Wales in 2015, with 120 kits being deployed across the region which meant a third of response officers had access to the cameras.

The arrival of the additional devices means the force will be the first in Wales to give the technology to all its police officers and police community support officers while on front line duty, including members of the specialist firearms and rural crime teams.

The Police and Crime Commissioner says “It’s expected that the extra kits will result in a 12 per cent increase in the number of successful prosecutions in domestic abuse cases, a surge in the number of guilty pleas generally and a reduction in the number of complaints against officers.”

Mr Jones added: “I promised in my manifesto that I would supply all front line officers with body worn video and today’s the day. I’m very, very happy that we’ve found the money to be able to do this.

“It’s going to help victims of crime, help us arrest more offenders and improve the quality of life of vulnerable people.

“It’s been shown that the introduction of body worn video equipment improves the success rate in domestic violence cases by 12 per cent. That’s massive.

“I look forward to seeing more and more offenders appearing in court and less survivors having to put up with a poor quality of life. I would expect there to be more guilty pleas and that’s a good thing. It avoids survivors of domestic violence having to give evidence in court. It saves money and it’s obviously better for the perpetrator because the earlier they plead guilty, the more reasonable the sentence will be for them.

Chief Superintendent Sacha Hatchett, Head of Local Policing Services, said: “We’re absolutely delighted the Commissioner has invested in this new kit.

“The results for body-worn video nationally speak for themselves. When police officers are using body-worn video they are showing what’s happening in reality – the evidence is incontrovertible.

“Officers are being really innovative. They’re used for anti-social behaviour patrols, they’re used on the night-time economy, so you can actually see if there is affray or fighting taking place, what that actually looks like, what that actually means at that time.

“They’re being used when officers go to road traffic accidents and they’re using them when they serve warrants.

“There is a sound evidence-base for us having body-worn video, and it’s supporting my officers on the front line who do a very difficult job well and they are very professional in what they do, so anything to support them gets my support.

“We’re still analysing the data but we are finding that complaints against officers have gone down, people making vexatious complaints have reduced.”

PC Matt Jones is a big fan of body worn video, he said; “It’s made a big difference. When we attend various scenes, for example a road accident, our priorities would be casualties and things like that. We can use our body-worn video on whilst we’re dealing with casualties.

“The equipment also makes people less likely to want to be abusive, threatening or violent because they know they’re being recorded on camera, It nips problems in the bud.”