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June 11th, 2022 
Awake Goy 
Victoria Police has been warned it risks weakening evidence unless officers comply with this simple measure.
The Victorian Auditor General on Wednesday released its report into body-worn cameras (BWCs) which found Victoria Police officers didn’t activate body-worn cameras in situations they were required to in 16.4 per cent of instances, based on data from March last year.
The Auditor General’s report found this posed a risk that footage may not be available for key incidents.
It added this could result in weaker evidence for investigations and prosecutions, reduced transparency in complaint investigations and reputational damage to Victoria Police.
Because the force does not systematically assess police officers’ compliance with its activation framework, it does not understand why the cameras were not activated in some instances, the report stated.
“Therefore, it cannot be assured that police officers are consistently activating BWCs when needed,” it added.
“Victoria Police is likely to miss opportunities to continuously improve its use of BWCs unless it actively monitors police officers’ compliant BWC use and drives best practice.
“Victoria Police also needs to monitor use and compliance and have controls to protect footage.”
Most Australian police forces now use the technology, with Victoria Police implementing the cameras in 2018.
The Auditor-General said while BWCs present many opportunities for police to improve how they interact with the public and gather evidence, they also carry risks.
“Unmanaged, these risks can undermine a police force’s integrity and accountability to the public,” it said.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the noncompliance figure may also include incidents where there would be no requirement to activate a body camera.
“While there are likely instances where BWC has not been activated, this figure of noncompliance needs to be treated with caution,” she said.
“For example, this figure may include incidents where CAD data shows officers were dispatched to an incident, only to find upon attendance, the incident has de-escalated or they do not have an active role due to the attendance of other emergency service units, including other police. As a result, there would be no requirement to activate a BWC.
“Victoria Police is committed to providing ongoing support and guidance to our officers to ensure this technology is being used in the correct manner.
“Victoria Police will continue to make officers aware of the expectations surrounding the use of the body-worn camera monitoring dashboard, while BWC refresher training will be provided to officers when relevant.”
The spokeswoman said the force has clear guidelines and expectations as to when body worn cameras should be activated and mandatory reporting requirements if a camera is muted or stopped prematurely.
Of the eight recommendations from the VAGO report, three have been accepted, a further three have been accepted in principle, and two have been rejected.
Victoria Police rejected a recommendation to establish a policy for regularly reviewing audit logs to reduce the risk of mishandling BWC footage because VAGOs audit did not find any instances of footage being mishandled.
They also rejected a monitoring and reporting process that measures the prevalence and efficiency of BWC footage in legal proceedings and complaints against police.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the technology was provided to instil confidence and safety.
“The video footage serves everybody’s purposes. It can demonstrate that there was only appropriate behaviour, it can mean less people need to go to court, less victims have to testify,” he said.
“For every good reason, we’ve funded the technology. It only makes sense.
“I’m not here today to be critical of Victoria Police members. It’s a big transition and a big change to go from no body worn cameras, we then had a trial and now we’re rolling them out progressively.
“I’m sure that we’ll see that performance improve over time.”
8Jun2022, HS
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