Home Secretary backs the Federation on BWV footage

22 September 2020

Humberside Police Federation chair Pete Musgrave has welcomed the support of the Home Secretary as a ‘significant step’ in the Federation’s campaign to allow body-worn video (BWV) footage to be shared with the public.

The campaign follows an increase in the posting of selected clips of incidents involving the police on social media with the Federation expressing concern about members being subjected to personal abuse because of one-sided videos.

“The support of the Home Secretary is welcome and feels like a significant step,” Pete said. “Her backing can only strengthen our calls for forces to share body-worn footage to protect our members.

“When selected clips are posted on the internet to give a distorted view of an incident, it can escalate quickly into a social media storm which can leave officers feeling exposed and really have an impact on them.

“If it happens, we must be able to protect our members from personal abuse, unfair criticism and trial by social media by having the ability to share body-worn videos.

“While I appreciate that not all body-worn videos can be shared, where it is appropriate to do so It will help us to maintain trust in policing and might make people think twice about posting in the first place,” he added.

Pete’s comments came after national Federation chair John Apter recently raised this topic with the Priti Patel during an exclusive interview for POLICE, the Federation’s magazine.

Ms Patel branded the publicising of unbalanced footage in an attempt to vilify officers as ‘unacceptable’.

The Home Secretary has now written as a direct result to Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), encouraging forces to be proactive in considering when BWV footage can be released to demonstrate the good work officers do and to show that selective footage can be misleading.

She said: “It is in this context that I am expressing my support for the Police Federation's recent campaign to protect officers from unfair criticism via social media.”

The national Federation chair explained: “I wrote to the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing saying that, when appropriate and where it is possible, we should release officers’ body-worn video footage. I also raised this directly with the Home Secretary.

“The Home Secretary’s support and the action being taken by the NPCC and College of Policing is very welcome news. This is a step in the right direction, not only to protect my colleagues from unfair social media attacks, but also to protect public confidence in the police.”

The NPCC and the college have since agreed to begin reviewing BWV guidance with the Federation feeding into the process.