Body Worn Video / Officer complaints ( 1139A/22)
Request
- What date were officer body worn cameras introduced. If an exact date is not available, please provide the month and year?
- Totals complaints regarding police officer behaviour, split by calendar month and year, up to one year prior to body worn cameras being introduced and two years after this.
- Total complaints, split by calendar month and year, up to one year prior to body worn camera’s being introduced and two years after this.
We clarified on 30th August 2022 and you responded on 31st August 2022
Question 1
For clarification, this would be for the general rollout from 2018 if force wide please.
Therefore:
1) What date were officer body worn cameras introduced. If an exact date is not available, please provide the month and year? General rollout across the force once issued to all officers, if a phased/trial rollout.
Question 2
This is to capture complaints against police officer’s behaviour.
Therefore:
Total number of overall complaints in relation to Police Officer behaviour (breach of code of ethics or unacceptable officer conduct), split by calendar month and year Jan 2017 to Dec 2018 and Jan 2018 to Dec 2020
Question 3
This is to pick up all complaints, so all totals.
Therefore:
- Total number of overall Police complaints, split by calendar month and year, Jan 2017 to Dec 2018 and Jan 2018 to Dec 2020
Response
Please find enclosed our response.
1.What date were officer body worn cameras introduced. If an exact date is not available, please provide the month and year?
They were rolled out May 2018, this was the start of the roll out.
Under section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. The information you requested is available on the following website.
Body Worn Video (1645A/21) – Freedom of Information – West Midlands Police (west-midlands.police.uk)
Q2: Totals complaints regarding police officer behaviour, split by calendar month and year, up to one year prior to body worn cameras being introduced and two years after this.
Complaints received about police officers one year prior to body-worn cameras being introduced. As discussed previously, police officer behaviour could be included in any allegation, so I have provided detail of all allegations: 01.04.2017 – 30.04.2018.
| Allegation Category | Count |
| Breach Code A PACE | 3 |
| Breach Code B PACE | 49 |
| Breach Code C PACE | 66 |
| Breach Code E PACE | 1 |
| Corrupt practice | 32 |
| Discriminatory Behaviour | 40 |
| Improper disclosure of information | 43 |
| Incivility, impoliteness and intolerance | 173 |
| Irregularity in evidence/perjury | 40 |
| Lack of fairness and impartiality | 100 |
| Mishandling of property | 81 |
| Multiple or unspecified breaches of PACE | 3 |
| Oppressive conduct or harassment | 113 |
| Other | 10 |
| Other assault | 144 |
| Other irregularity in procedure | 20 |
| Other neglect or failure in duty | 552 |
| Other sexual conduct | 1 |
| Serious non-sexual assault | 18 |
| Sexual assault | 3 |
| Traffic irregularity | 9 |
| Unlawful/unnecessary arrest or detention | 81 |
| (blank) | |
| Grand Total | 1582 |
Complaints received about police officers two years after body-worn video cameras were introduced: 01.05.2018 – 30.04.2020. You will see there are more allegation categories in this table, due to the new regulations being introduced in February 2020. The new Regulations included a new complaint definition, as a result of this there has been a natural increase in complaints nationally being made by members of the public.
| Allegation Category | Count |
| Abuse of position for other purpose | 4 |
| Abuse of position for sexual purpose | 1 |
| Bail, identification and interview procedures | 2 |
| Breach Code A PACE | 2 |
| Breach Code B PACE | 21 |
| Breach Code C PACE | 62 |
| Corrupt practice | 20 |
| Decisions | 42 |
| Detention in police custody | 14 |
| Disability | 5 |
| Disclosure of information | 14 |
| Discreditable conduct | 5 |
| Discriminatory Behaviour | 54 |
| Evidential procedures | 6 |
| General level of service | 32 |
| Handling of information | 4 |
| Handling of or damage to property/premises | 25 |
| Impolite and intolerant actions | 6 |
| Impolite language/tone | 70 |
| Improper disclosure of information | 32 |
| Incivility, impoliteness and intolerance | 204 |
| Information | 29 |
| Irregularity in evidence/perjury | 27 |
| Lack of fairness and impartiality | 143 |
| Mishandling of property | 79 |
| Multiple or unspecified breaches of PACE | 4 |
| Obstruction of justice | 7 |
| Oppressive conduct or harassment | 85 |
| Organisational corruption | 2 |
| Other | 20 |
| Other assault | 146 |
| Other irregularity in procedure | 16 |
| Other neglect or failure in duty | 544 |
| Other policies and procedures | 10 |
| Other sexual conduct | 5 |
| Out of court disposals | 1 |
| Overbearing or harassing behaviours | 20 |
| Police action following contact | 114 |
| Power to arrest and detain | 24 |
| Race | 13 |
| Religion or belief | 2 |
| Searches of premises and seizure of property | 23 |
| Serious non-sexual assault | 24 |
| Sex | 2 |
| Sexual assault | 7 |
| Sexual harassment | 1 |
| Stops, and stop and search | 12 |
| Traffic irregularity | 6 |
| Unlawful/unnecessary arrest or detention | 75 |
| Unprofessional attitude and disrespect | 28 |
| Use of force | 53 |
| Use of police systems | 5 |
| Use of police vehicles | 12 |
| Grand Total | 2164 |
- Total number of overall Police complaints, split by calendar month and year, Jan 2017 to Dec 2018 and Jan 2018 to Dec 2020
In the year 2020 you will observe an increase in numbers, this is because of the implementation of the new recording standard and categories.
| Year 2017/ Month | Number of ALL Police complaints received |
| Jan | 68 |
| Feb | 69 |
| Mar | 66 |
| Apr | 49 |
| May | 58 |
| June | 67 |
| July | 59 |
| Aug | 63 |
| Sep | 129 |
| Oct | 76 |
| Nov | 69 |
| Dec | 61 |
| Year 2018/ Month | Number of ALL Police complaints received |
| Jan | 42 |
| Feb | 63 |
| Mar | 44 |
| Apr | 51 |
| May | 39 |
| June | 41 |
| July | 62 |
| Aug | 40 |
| Sep | 29 |
| Oct | 43 |
| Nov | 34 |
| Dec | 40 |
| Year 2019/ Month | Number of ALL Police complaints received |
| Jan | 21 |
| Feb | 33 |
| Mar | 67 |
| Apr | 40 |
| May | 28 |
| June | 30 |
| July | 47 |
| Aug | 13 |
| Sep | 24 |
| Oct | 39 |
| Nov | 36 |
| Dec | 28 |
| Year 2020/ Month | Number of ALL Police complaints received |
| Jan | 22 |
| Feb | 341 |
| Mar | 264 |
| Apr | 362 |
| May | 352 |
| June | 392 |
| July | 370 |
| Aug | 299 |
| Sep | 286 |
| Oct | 430 |
| Nov | 328 |
| Dec | 260 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be considered when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
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