Project update: Positive public support for police use of Body Worn Video

Police Scotland is thoroughly committed to policing by consent and this means involving the public and gathering views when looking to introduce change.

With Body Worn Video (BWV) widely used throughout the United Kingdom, including in our North East Division, Police Scotland wanted to find out what people elsewhere in Scotland felt about Police Scotland’s use of the technology, in more areas of policing. Public opinion was important in establishing and shaping the direction of this project.

Fairness and transparency is central to policing and these cameras provide the opportunity for incidents to be recorded to show a true picture of what is happening as it unfolds. The videos also provide a fuller irrefutable evidence of incidents which support written statements and verbal accounts from survivors and victims of crime.

With this in mind, it was crucially important that the public were engaged in our approach to understanding the factors affecting people’s perceptions of BWV and key considerations for policing, especially from people who are often seldom-heard.

Following the success of our public engagement to inform the introduction of BWV for our armed policing officers ahead of COP26, Police Scotland launched a further national public engagement exercise. This included a consultation survey which received over 9,300 responses and asked the public to give their opinions on the fuller rollout of BWV to all police officers and police staff in operational roles.

The public were asked a number of questions with the intention of enabling policing in Scotland to develop a comprehensive understanding of public opinion which was broadly representative of Scotland’s people.

Questions included:

“Would you feel safer knowing that your interaction with Police Scotland is being recorded by a body worn camera?”

“To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Knowing interactions with the public are recorded would increase my confidence in Police Scotland.”

Results are available on the Police Scotland Engagement Hub, but the key findings showed clear support for BWV. Highlights included:

• 8 in 10 people (82%) support police officers, staff and special constables always wearing BWV when engaged in police activities;
• More than two thirds (71%) of respondents agreed they would “always” feel safer knowing that their interaction with Police Scotland was being recorded by BWV;
• Over 8 in 10 people (84%) agreed BWV would increase their confidence in Police Scotland.

In addition to responses to our large-scale public consultation survey, Police Scotland’s Research and Insight team facilitated a series of focus groups in partnership with an external agency.

These took place for key population groups, including: survivors of domestic abuse, people who are black or from minority ethnic communities, refugees and asylum seekers, and care experienced young people; all who have particular needs and we wanted to understand why and how the police could introduce BWV in the future in a way which reflected their needs.

Not all of those who took part in the survey were in favour of BWV however, and participants provided reasons for this. Everyone’s views were welcomed and valued, and will be integral in forming and establishing our ‘Code of Practice’ for BWV as the project progresses in the future.

We will ensure that our dialogue with the public remains genuine and transparent. This supports us to ensure that future introduction of the technology in more areas of policing remains grounded in our values of integrity, fairness and respect whilst protecting human rights.

We recognise this is vital to ensure our legitimacy, the bond between the people of Scotland and police, continues as we carry out our duties with the public’s trust and consent.

We would like to thank everyone who took part; your views were varying and very important and we welcome conversations like these with the communities we serve. Police Scotland recognises and thanks the many organisations and advocates who responded to our public consultation survey and those who supported us in the facilitation of our focus groups.

Work now progresses to secure funding for the future national rollout of BWV and we will share more information when it becomes available.

For more information on the results of our public engagement activity on Body Worn Video, visit our consultation site.