Met Police roll out scheme issuing bodycams to more than 22,000 frontline officers
Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and London Mayor Sadiq Khan were in Lewisham, South London, to launch project
THOUSANDS of frontline cops in the UK’s biggest police force will be equipped with body-worn cameras over the coming months.
Scotland Yard said Body Worn Video (BWV) would be issued to more than 22,000 Metropolitan Police officers, starting today.
Cameras will be distributed to London's 32 boroughs as well as a number of frontline specialist roles, including overt firearms officers.
The scheme will be rolled out in phases and is expected to be fully up and running by next summer, the Met said.
Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was joined in Lewisham, South London, by London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the roll-out of the cameras following a trial of the technology.
The force said the cameras have already shown that they can help bring about speedier justice for victims.
The cameras have been particularly successful in domestic abuse cases, the Met added, where there has been a rise in early guilty pleas from offenders who know their actions have been recorded.
Scotland Yard said: "The technology offers greater transparency for those in front of the camera as well as behind it.
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"Londoners can feel reassured during their interactions with the police, whilst allowing us to demonstrate the professionalism of our officers in the many challenging and contentious interactions, such as the use of stop and search."
The cameras will be attached to officers’ uniforms and will not be permanently recording.
Police said members of the public will be told as soon as practical if they are being filmed.
And when the camera is recording it is highly visible – with a flashing red circle and a frequent beeping noise indicating when the camera is activated.
Hogan-Howe said: ";What we do every day will be seen by the public – that has to be good.
"Our experience of using cameras already shows that people are more likely to plead guilty when they know we have captured the incident on a camera.
"That then speeds up justice, puts offenders behind bars more quickly and most importantly protects potential victims.
"Video captures events in a way that can't be represented on paper in the same detail.
"A picture paints a thousand words, and it has been shown the mere presence of this type of video can often defuse potentially violent situations without the need for force to be used."
Khan said the technology brings the police force "into the 21st century".
In November 2015, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) awarded a three-year contract worth £3.4million to Axon Public Safety UK Limited to supply the Met with 22,000 cameras.
Last month, a study by the University of Cambridge found a 93 per cent decrease in complaints made against officers clearly wearing body cameras.
Bodycam technology is already widely used in the US, with the cameras capturing several controversial and high-profile incidents recently.
The officer wasn’t charged with a crime after the footage showed the man charging at him with his hand behind his back as if he was holding a weapon.
And the controversial killing of Keith Lamont Scott was also caught on the uniform cameras of the officers who shot him.
Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, were forced to release the footage after public pressure and protests over Scott’s death.
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