Recommendation 1
The IOPC recommends that Greater Manchester Police amend their ‘Body Worn Video Policy (BWV) and Procedure’, to include direction for officers around use of body worn video in the post-incident process. The policy should be developed in line with the NPCC national guidance on BWV.
This follows an IOPC investigation where response officers were given a non-conferring warning over the radio, following a man sustaining life threatening injuries. Within the warning, the officers were told to keep their BWV on until they had arrived at the post incident procedure (PIP), however, every officer turned their BWV off prior to leaving the scene. The officers were issued Reg.17 notices in relation to a potential breach of the standards of professional behaviour for Orders and Instructions.
During the IOPC investigation, it was identified that the Sergeant responsible for transporting the officers to the PIP was not aware of any policy which stipulated that the officers BWV should be kept on. GMP’s BWV policy states that it is considered advisable that an officer continues to record for a short while after an incident to demonstrate that the incident had concluded. The policy does not offer any guidance in relation to officers keeping their BWV switched on in order for the PIP process to be seen as transparent. The audio recording functionality of the device provides reassurance that inappropriate conferring has not occurred.
Consideration should be given to bringing the GMP BWV policy in line with the NPCC BWV guidance in relation to Post Incident Process (PIP and Post Incident Management (PIM).
This recommendation is intended to protect officers from misconduct proceedings as well as protect the integrity of the PIP process.
Addressed to: Greater Manchester Police
Linked bodies:
Greater Manchester Police