Body cams reducing Taser use says Federation

ESSEX police officers wearing body cameras are less likely to have to deploy Taser, Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor has told BBC Essex.

Speaking on the Dave Monk radio show, Steve agreed with a recent West Yorkshire Police report which revealed that people ‘modify their behaviour’ when they realise they are being recorded.

Body cameras help Essex officers in several ways Steve said.

“The Federation is a great fan of body cameras,” he told the show.

“And they help our members in a number of ways. We’ve seen a change in a behaviour of those we are dealing with when they know they are being filmed and when they know that any footage could be used in future prosecutions.

“It means we might not have to use as much force to detain a suspect as we may have had to otherwise and anecdotally I would say that the use of Taser has definitely gone down due to their deployment.”

Other body cam benefits include reassuring the public that stop and search powers are being used correctly and that any force being used to detain suspects is at the appropriate level.

The Essex force currently has 700 body worn cameras in use, 400 more can’t be deployed because of what Steve calls ‘back office functional’ issues.

“Taser and body cameras for every officer is what we want to see,” Steve added.

“There are more which could be deployed but the force servers aren’t able to accommodate the extra tech currently.

“Technology moves so fast and the process of how we spend public money for policing can’t always keep up.

“These pieces of kit aren’t cheap, but upgrading could mean footage could be accessed by wider groups, the CPS, defence teams and the public, for instance.

“Cost is, of course, always an issue in the public sector and particularly in policing.”