Police cameras "reduce complaints against officials"

Research shows that police cameras can greatly reduce the number of complaints against police officers.

A study by the University of Cambridge shows that in the past 12 months, public complaints against officers have dropped by 93% compared to last year.

The project monitored nearly 2,000 police officers from four British troops and two U.S. police stations.

Dr. Barak Ariel, who was in charge of the study, said that no other security measures led to this "radical" change.

The study aimed to find out whether the use of the camera, usually clamped in the upper half of the officer’s uniform, affected public complaints against the police.

The experiment involved police from Northern Ireland, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire, as well as California’s Rialto and Ventura police stations, which worked for nearly 1.5 million hours.

The results of the investigation were published in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Conduct. The report showed that during the annual review, there were 113 complaints against military officers, compared with 1,539 in the first 12 months, a decrease of 93%.

Dramatic changes

Dr. Ariel of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology said: "I can't think of any [other] intervention in the history of law and order that would greatly change the behavior of police officers, the behavior of suspects and their behavior. Interact with each other."

He said the results show that the police and the public are adjusting their behavior.

"Once (the public) knows that they are being recorded, once they know that everything they do is recorded on tape, they will undoubtedly change their behavior because they don't want to get in trouble.

"Personal officials became more responsible and changed their behaviors accordingly, and once the camera changed, the public complained about the more despicable complaints."

The head-mounted camera was first introduced ten years ago and is now standard equipment for police equipment in the UK.

There is no reliable number indicating how many cameras there are, but it is believed that most front-line personnel in most units can use it.

One of the research’s strange findings was that even in the “control” group, the staff were demobilized without cameras, and complaints plummeted.

Dr. Ariel says this is because good practices and changes in the police culture have penetrated into each unit because they have adapted to the phenomenon of using cameras-which he calls the "infectious responsibility system."

Firm conviction
Simon Megicks, assistant chief police officer from the Hertfordshire Police Department, who participated in the study, said that the reason behind the decline in the number of complaints was "many factors."

He said: "This is the adjustment factor that the camera brings to people's behavior. I think it can help us (the police) become the best in the game."

The provision of video recordings of incidents also helps the police ensure convictions, especially in cases of domestic violence where the victims are sometimes unwilling to cooperate.

It is also believed that this helps increase reports of police attacks. A study published by the University of Cambridge in May showed that when using the camera worn on the body, the attack rate of eight troops against officers increased by 15%.

Last week, the Independent Police Complaints Commission stated that the use of cameras worn by police officers helped it investigate the fatal police shooting of James Fox in Enfield in August 2015.

IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts said: "The case also attracted attention due to the active use of body video, which led to the capture of the incident from two angles, recording the efforts of officials to save Mr. Fox's life, And provided a fair explanation, confirming that the officials wrote down what happened that night."

Although Cambridge University’s research found that the number of complaints caused by cameras has decreased, last year’s IPCC data covering all troops and officers indicated that the overall trend is that complaints are increasing.