London's police vans are getting fitted with CCTV
London's police forces are adopting cameras and other recording equipment in earnest. Twenty-thousand officers are already in the process of receiving body-worn cameras and soon, every police van will be equipped with CCTV too. The initial target is to have at least one vehicle fitted with the technology -- five cameras, three microphones and two monitors -- in every London borough within the coming months. Roughly 120 vehicles have already been kitted out and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) says all future vans will come with the gear as standard. Recording begins as soon as the ignition is switched on and all data is overwritten after 22 days. Should the footage be required as evidence in a trial, however, it can be downloaded from the system and stored for longer periods.
Capturing the moments after a person has been arrested and bundled into the back of a police van should, in theory, provide greater transparency about the Met's day-to-day operations and, subsequently, improve public confidence. The equipment not only acts as a pre-emptive measure to discourage wayward police behaviour, but it could also help officers to prove their case should they ever feel they've been incorrectly accused.
[Image Credit: Martin Deutsch, Flickr]
