The first thing you see when you step off the train at Newquay in Cornwall, in southwest England, is the police station opposite. A seaside resort, it is quiet now, but in the summer holidays it overflows. Hotels, bars and tourist shops litter the streets waiting for young people coming to party after school and to surf at the nearby beaches. Local young people walk the streets, some in wetsuits, some in hoodies. The cliffs jut down from the edge of the road, where two teenagers fell to their deaths last summer after excessive drinking. Police officers patrol the town center and the quieter villages further out.
The locals call them Robocops; police officers with three-inch cameras fitted to the side of their heads, electronic wires running down swollen, stab-proof vests. These new “headcams” are being rolled out across the county to combat teen drinking and antisocial behavior, and to film culprits as young as 11 years old. It might sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but the cameras are fast becoming part of a copper’s armory.
“They’re a superb piece of equipment,” says Mark Bolt, an inspector for Devon and Cornwall police, sitting at a table strewn with large black camera cases, batteries and wires.
“Members of the public call in with problems of antisocial behavior, we do a big blitz in their village or town center for one week — and it all goes quiet. The cameras do not even have to be switched on — children behave better when they think they’re being videoed,” he said.
The police officers say the cameras are overt, because they can be seen (unlike buttonhole cameras) and that they inform people when the cameras start rolling. However, it is arguable how many of their inebriated subjects are sufficiently in command of their faculties to understand. Officers in Cornwall’s headcam team say the footage frequently shocks the culprits, who are often “too drunk or stoned to remember” how they acted in police company.
Bolt’s team mostly focus on children and young people. He explains that one of the main uses of the cameras is to give those acting antisocially and their families a sharp wake-up call.
“I showed one mum the footage of her 15-year-old son and he was so disgusted he couldn’t even come into the office to watch, let alone look his mum in the eye,” he said. “His mum knew he wasn’t an angel, but she was shocked by his behavior. He never came to our attention again.”
Since 2007, five other police forces across England have employed cameras to tackle antisocial behavior among young people, after the Home Office provided £3 million (US$4.35 million) to pilot body-worn video cameras (BWVs) across the country. London’s Metropolitan police has 114 in operation, although these may not be exclusively used for tackling antisocial behavior. Cornwall is the latest region that plans to extend the scheme. The three main police divisions in west Cornwall, east Cornwall and central Cornwall are working with Cornwall county council on plans to almost double the number of headcams in operation to 20 this summer.
Every time headcam footage has been used in a Cornish court, the police say, there has been a conviction, and it has increased the number of guilty pleas, resulting in speedier verdicts. Bolt is keen to stress that recording has helped improve behavior on both sides. Police officers know that their conduct is being recorded as well as that of their subjects, and youngsters think twice about raising false allegations of mistreatment by the police.
But not every police officer welcomes headcams. Graeme Gerrard, deputy chief constable of the Cheshire county force in the north west of England, raises some serious concerns.
“I know from my experience that body-worn cameras can be useful in certain situations, but using them in day-to-day operations will raise the evidential bar and increase the pressure to video and audio record every interaction with the public,” he said.
“At the moment, the cameras are only switched on when an incident might occur, but defense solicitors are going to want to know why they weren’t switched on earlier — what happened in the moment before the cameras started rolling? There’s an incentive to film constantly and if a police officer switches on a camera every time they have an interaction with a member of the public, it is likely to have a detrimental impact on our relationships with them,” Gerrard said.
He is also concerned about the costs, not just of the cameras — which are between £800 and £1,000 each and require updating (the new cameras being discussed in Cornwall are fitted with microchips rather than hard drives, making it easier to transfer data) — but also the investment needed in back-office functions to review, process and store the footage.
“What is the cost of downloading and storing this data every time you go out?” Gerrard asks. “Very soon, the cost of these techniques starts to spiral against what benefit they offer.”
At present, footage with no value as evidence is stored for 28 days and then erased, while clips containing evidence are kept for six years. Training officers to use the headcams takes around four hours, and Cornish police say they are hoping to train a large number of police under Association of Chief Police Officers guidance. The idea is that the cameras could then be shared between branches as and when they are needed.
Cornish police say there has been nothing but enthusiasm from the public for the cameras, and there have been no reported complaints. Antisocial behavior is a major public priority here, particularly in Newquay where the local population can rise five-fold in the summer months.
Headcams are just one of a number of tactics being employed by the police to restrain young people who descend on the seaside resort. This year, there is a plan to draw a “ring of steel” around the town, with officers stopping and searching newcomers off the trains.
But how will these plans play out with the commitment of the UK’s new coalition government to restoring civil liberties? A proposed freedom bill promises to review the regulation of CCTV, and the Home Office has confirmed this will include the use of BWCs.
Local Liberal Democrat MP Steve Gilbert fully supports the use of the headcams.
“If you’re going to get serious about tackling antisocial behavior, you need to give police the powers to deal with it,” he says. “The reality is people in Newquay feel that they can’t go down into their own town because they’re afraid of antisocial behavior ... We’re seeing vomiting in gardens, urinating in the street and loud, boisterous behavior. Most residents will be pleased to see the police tackling antisocial behavior that blights the town.”
However, crime in this part of England is falling. According to Cornwall police figures, there are now 10,000 fewer victims of crime than there were five years ago, and 4,000 fewer calls relating to antisocial behavior this year compared with last.
“Fear of crime in Cornwall is much bigger than the stats,” Bolt said, “but people need to feel safe as well as be safe. The public want headcams because they give them more confidence.”
Bolt wants to pilot the cameras in other areas of crime, particularly domestic violence. He would like to have them rolled out to all officers as part of their kit.
But Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, warns that their use risks exacerbating the situation rather than addressing the root causes of antisocial behavior among youngsters.
“There are many alternatives to this kind of action, including working with the young people in the community to understand their motivations and identify solutions to localized issues,” she said. “We believe that having the active participation of young people in tackling local issues empowers them to have a more positive role and view of their community.”
Some young people in the town welcome the moves to roll out headcams and stop-and-search patrols. But others remain skeptical. Liam 22, who was charged for being drunk and disorderly earlier this year, says that although he hasn’t been filmed by police cameras, he worries that they could be part of an increasingly authoritarian pattern of policing.
“The police around here aren’t very good anyway,” he said. “If there’s one bit of antisocial behavior, the police will use six coppers [officers] to restrain you, even if you’re not struggling — they’re going a step too far.”
“Newquay is a resort where young people come to enjoy themselves,” he said. “People around here make money from that. If people come on holiday here and the police go around filming them, it’s going to put people off and destroy the town. No one likes the idea of being filmed. It makes you feel uncomfortable and it’s intruding on privacy.”
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