Body worn cameras for every front line officer in Hampshire

They are currently used to capture video and audio evidence when attending all types of criminal incidents.

The footage is used to support prosecutions but now it is hoped that with the extra numbers police can record witness statements.

The force has 500 cameras, 170 of which are issued as standard to officers and PCSOs on the Isle of Wight as part of a pilot scheme which started in 2013.

Simon Hayes, police and crime commissioner, said that Hampshire Constabulary will now issue one camera per officer and PCSO, boosting the number to 2,800 over the next six months.

“The importance of technology is that it is enabling police officers to do their job properly, to make them efficient and effective, to show evidence to the courts about what has happened at incidents, and to speed up the justice process,” he said.

The information can also be shared with the Crown Prosecution Service, which Mr Hayes says will make justice quicker for victims.

On Tuesday the Government’s minister for policing, criminal justice and victims, Mike Penning MP, visited Winchester for a demonstration of how the cameras work.

He was accompanied by Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine, Hampshire’s chief constable Andy Marsh, and Inspector Steve Goodier, lead officer for the force’s body-worn camera project. Mr Penning said Hampshire, which is among the first in the country to roll out the scheme, is ‘leading the way’.

He said: “Hampshire is leading the country in where we can really use body worn cameras in other ways. With the cameras if someone is a witness and we can talk to them there and then rather than in two or three weeks time when they might be at work or busy and might have forgotten something.

“They give our officers brilliant security. I want them to feel safe. America is years behind us with this.”

The money came from a £700,000 innovation grant from central Government, which Mr Hayes said the force ‘topped up’.