Almost 200 officers assigned to the Met’s dedicated dog unit have been equipped with body worn video cameras.
The force has been rolling out the cameras to its entire frontline workforce, the biggest known adoption of the technology in the world, in order to boost transparency and accountability and to aid officers in securing convictions.
Members of the public have a right to view any footage of them and, unless needed for evidence, all footage is automatically deleted after 31 days.
All officers in the 32 boroughs policed by the Met will be issued with a camera, as well as specialist firearms officers and other dedicated units, by the end of this summer.
Chief Inspector Neil Sawyer said: “Body Worn Video continues to be issued to all officers from Taskforce; the Dog Section being the most recent.
“The nature of their work means they frequently work alone so this is a vital means of capturing and corroborating evidence.
“It also allows the community to have the utmost confidence in the officers’ actions and has proven instrumental in resolving complaints.
“Body worn footage has also led to early guilty pleas when the suspect has been presented with images of their actions.
“It also allows courts to witness first-hand what the officer was faced with and the split-second decisions they needed to make.”
Today’s roll out to the Dog Support Unit will be followed by the issuing of cameras to officers in the Marine Policing Unit, Mounted Branch and Automated Number Plate Recognition units.
