Local people are now playing a greater role looking at policing in closer detail than ever before, including examining video footage from police body cameras.
All frontline police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables were provided with body cams in an initiative funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire more than two years ago. Policing in Staffordshire was the first in the country to equip all frontline officers with the technology with 550 cameras now in use. Armed police officers also use the body cams.
Safer Neighbourhood Panels in Staffordshire have been trained to examine body worn video camera footage from Taser use and from stop and searches by police officers.
More than 100 people sit on the panels which have been established across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to hold each area’s Local Policing Commander to account.
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire Matthew 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.
“It was clear to me that the small pilot undertaken in Staffordshire before I took office needed a swift and full roll-out across the entire force.
“The use of body cams ensure police officers behave appropriately in their duties interacting with individuals as well as speed up the investigation of what can be at times complex complaints against officers.
“Body cams reinforce openness and transparency in policing which I believe is so important.
“As part of the approach I set out to make Staffordshire Police the most open and transparent in the country, Safer Neighbourhood Panels have been established and received training to look at policing in greater detail than ever before.
“This ensures local people are actively involved in holding the police to account.”
Safer Neighbourhood Panels were set up by Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner to scrutinise and shape policing at the most local level.
The overarching, county-wide independent Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP) – also established by PCC Matthew Ellis – recommended the mandatory use of body worn video for every stop and search incident in Staffordshire. Their report, which includes the recommendations, can be read at www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/etap-reports/
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, who was re-elected in May this year for a second term as Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, 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 and Taser, add rigour and underpin the transparency which is essential in services like policing.”
For more information on Safer Neighbourhood Panels and ETAP visit www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/volunteer/
