Crimes Caught on Tape, From the Officer's Point of View
A Program in England Puts Cameras on the Helmets of Cops, With Remarkable Effects
By NICK WATT
Sept. 27, 2007—
These days, it's possible to get an officer's eye-view as a police officer breaks up a fight. How can you wrestle a man to the ground and film it at the same time?
You wear the camera on your head.
In Plymouth, on England's south coast, the police are testing this revolutionary new crime-fighting tool. So far, they like what they see.
"Without being crude, it's in your face," said police officer Tony Brown.
It most certainly is. On one quiet Sunday night, the camera captured an arrest in progress; an officer calmly addresses two people who are both yelling and cursing at him.
"All right, calm down," says the officer.
"You ain't welcome back here so f--- off," says the man being arrested.
"You can actually show what that person was like at the moment they were being dealt with by the officer, as opposed to the clean, well-presented individual as they show up at court," said Zoe Bateman, the leader of the Head Cam Project.
Caught in the Act
The U.K. already bristles with more than 4 million surveillance cameras, and most people in Plymouth welcome this new frontier in surveillance.
"The only people who would find it intrusive are people who are doing something wrong," said one person.
The police are proud of their new toy.
"So I could record something and then go back to it five minutes later. Say there was a fight or something. …I can say, he's the ringleader. He's the one who started it. So we'd have an instant arrest."
One of the main advantages of these head cams is the amount of time they save. Whatever Brown records on his camera -- whether it's a fight or an arrest in the city center -- he'll take that back to the police station, where the video is downloaded.
With this video there's now no longer a need for a written statement, and that can save a police officer about an hour every day in paperwork. And the head-cam video is admissible as evidence, so officers don't have to spend time going to court to testify verbally. They just send in the video.
Recently, a woman in Plymouth was the first person prosecuted using a head-cam video. She was seen through a mail slot strangling her boyfriend. When she saw the video she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail. The whole process from crime to conviction took just 17 days.
'At the Scene of the Crime'
"Members of the jury actually get put back at the scene of the crime," said Detective Sgt. Steve Foale from the Domestic Violence Investigative Unit.
He also points out that in domestic abuse cases, the victim often doesn't need to go through the ordeal of testifying in court.
"A lot of domestic violence incidents tend to be drink-fueled. And when you show the suspect sober what they've done when they're been drunk, it's really 'impactive' and often you get a very early guilty plea," said Foale.
Convictions for violent crime in Plymouth are up 26 percent since the program launched.
"No matter how good you are at actually writing a full-written statement, you cannot beat the audio and visual from the head-camera evidence," said Bateman. "You cannot say, 'Well, it wasn't me. I didn't say that, I didn't do that.' They are putting their hands up if they know they've committed that crime. They're putting their hands up at a much earlier opportunity and pleading guilty."
On Their Best Behavior
But it's not all drugs, fights and abuse. Brown said just wearing the head cam leads to respect, even if it isn't rolling.
"Once they notice it their whole demeanor changes, their attitude changes," he said. "As soon as they see it. Even though it's not on, they'll think it's on and they'll stop what they're doing."
And there's one more thing. We asked the boss if police behavior has also improved.
"We haven't had a single complaint against any officer who has been wearing the head cam," said Assistant Chief Constable Bob Spencer.
Why? Maybe because the officer's eye-view shows everything. The watchers are also being watched.