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London Police To Wear Video Cameras In Pilot Project

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-an-eye-on-things dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is reportedly engaging in a year-long pilot program to determine the benefits of its police force wearing video cameras during interactions with the public. 'The pilot will include a total of 500 cameras distributed across ten city boroughs.' London joins some major U.S. cities in this endeavor to improve the quality of policing through the use of wearable cameras. Privacy advocates argue, however, that police officers having these devices on their persons is not enough: 'the efficacy of police body-mounted cameras as a crime reduction and accountability tool hinges on enforcement of good policies and procedures—including something as basic as preventing officers from being able to deactivate the cameras at their own discretion.'"

4 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Can't turn them off? by mrxak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can (effectively) turn any camera off. Just "accidentally" point it the wrong way, or "accidentally" cover it up with something.

    --
    -mrxak
    Onions Will Kill You
    1. Re:Can't turn them off? by canthusus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You need to turn them on first...

      From BBC article: "The force said officers taking part in the pilot must comply with guidelines about when cameras are to be used, but that they will not be permanently switched on."

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...

    2. Re:Can't turn them off? by Threni · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And, as the police supporting the government during the Miner's Strike in the 1980's, you can simply leave it at home (in that case it was the unique ID they were supposed to wear in case - and of course this never happened - there was any accusation that they were involved in acts of illegality).

  2. Re:A step in the right direction by digitig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not actually true -- I live in London, and it's a five-minute walk from my house until I get on camera (basically, when I get to my local high street). The majority of the cameras you see reported in London (and the UK as a whole) are private security cameras inside shops. And the figures for the vast number of cameras in the UK are bogus -- they were based on counting the number of cameras on two busy shopping streets and multiplying by the total number of streets in the UK.

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    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?