More Safer Neighbourhood Panels, set up by Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner to scrutinise and shape policing at the most local level, have been trained to examine body worn video camera footage from police officers.
Local people, councillors and a magistrate sit on the panels which have been established across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to hold each area’s Local Policing Commander to account and look at wider criminal justice and community safety issues.
Safer Neighbourhood Panel members in Stafford and South Staffordshire were today (Fri) trained to examine video recorded on police body cameras from stop and searches. This follows training for panels in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent in recent weeks. Panel members in Cannock and Lichfield will be trained next week.
The training follows a report by the overarching, county-wide independent Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP) – also established by PCC Matthew Ellis – which successfully recommended the mandatory use of body worn video for every stop and search incident in Staffordshire. The report can be read at http://www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/etap-reports/
All frontline police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables were provided with body cams in an initiative funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner two years ago. Staffordshire was the first force in the country to equip all frontline officers with the technology with 550 cameras now in use.
Mr Ellis said: “The use of body cams is invaluable. They remove any doubt as to what happened in a situation which means the facts are clear. They can make previously complex complaints against police officers easier to investigate and they reinforce openness and transparency in policing which I believe is so important.
“Stop and search is an important power but can seriously harm public confidence in the police when used inappropriately or without the proper rigour which is why ETAP’s recommendation that every stop and search is recorded on body cam is crucial.
“Safer Neighbourhood Panels will now examine stop and search footage to provide an even stronger link with the public and a further important layer of transparency and reassurance.”
The ETAP report also recommended that body worn video (BWV) use is mandatory, not discretionary as it has been in the past, for all domestic abuse incidents and incidents where police use, or anticipate using, force.
Mr Ellis added: “The work of ETAP and the new Safer Neighbourhood Panels which I’m establishing across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is invaluable. They are developing in exactly the way I had hoped, offering constructive challenge, bringing new ideas and carry significant weight on behalf of the public to help me improve policing. This report and the work Safer Neighbourhood Panels will now do in examining complex policing issues, such as stop and search, add rigour and underpin the transparency which is essential in services like policing.”
Click here for more information on Safer Neighbourhood Panels and ETAP.
