Headcams will be given to police in south Shropshire
Sunday 31st October 2010, 8:00PM GMT.
Frontline police officers will bring a third eye to serious crime scenes in south Shropshire with the introduction of head-mounted video cameras.
West Mercia Police has rolled out the cameras for use by officers and community support officers following a two-year trial.
The high-tech equipment has recently been introduced in Ludlow for use across south Shropshire.
Most parts of the force area are now equipped, with 120 cameras in service.
The cameras have been very effective for gathering evidence in fast-moving and complex situations, allowing immediate recording of victims’ injuries and damage caused.
The technology has been especially useful in policing town centres at night and in other public order situations involving groups of people.
Sergeant Rebecca Riley, based at Ludlow police station, said: “Head-mounted cameras are a very useful and welcome addition to our resources in maintaining law and order.
“Police officers and CSOs now have the facility to be kitted out with body cameras while on patrol. This enables them to record sound and pictures in any situation they encounter and will assist in providing crucial evidence during court cases.”
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- Shrewsbury’s broadband speed one of slowest in UK
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Judging by the number of West Mercia police officers who actually get out on the streets to police ‘real time two cameras would have been more than enough.
Report abuse
How can the cops do the job when weighed down by all this extra clobber?.
Report abuse
If they’re anything like the cams I’ve seen for sale for activities like skydiving and skiing, the head part only weighs a few grams and plugs into any video recording device that accepts and external input, some of which also only weigh a few grams (especially those that use solid state recording technology). We’re not talking about Red One HDTV Hollywood-style equipment here.
Report abuse
May be but still more tat for them to think about , have you seen all the tat around the waist ? it makes them waddle.
Report abuse
That’d be the doughnuts… :-p
Report abuse
It’s called technology Andrew. The whole kit probably weighs about the same as a mobile phone.
Report abuse
a two edged sword maybe.
Will the police be obliged to put forward camera evidence in complaints against themselves?
Will they be selective about the production of this evidence?
Report abuse
I think we all know the answer to that. On occasions when police officers are accused of brutality or misconduct (as seems to be the norm across several forces now…)the camera equipment will be mysteriously “missing” or “defective” or “not working” etc etc….
However, it WILL be working when you are witnessed dropping litter, or parking “in contravention to the regulations”, or giving your child a tap for misbehaving and so forth, and therefore used in a court as evidence so that you can be fined £60 for breaking some bye-law or other. Because, for all the positive spin the police are putting on this, those are EXACTLY the sort of things these cameras will be used for. (And for raising money when they flog the footage to some moronic ‘Police Camera Action!’ – type show…)
I’d say it was ‘Big Brother’ surveillance all over again. Except you don’t see enough police these days to make it fully effective. I wonder what ordinary long- serving (and long suffering) police officers think about this? Rolling their eyes and praying for retirement I expect!
Report abuse
an excellent piece of kit , and a good security help to them , and Andrew its not tat its the 21St century not the 19Th , and of course it doesn’t weigh that much approximately about a few grams won’t notice it. and a good way to see criminals if they get away. great evidence
Report abuse
Great, can look forward to more peak time hours of meaningful ‘fly on the wall’ documentaries. In Market Drayton that will mean lots of footage from the inside of the police station dunking biscuits into tea or sitting in their that squad cars that they seem reluctant to get out of.
Report abuse