Nyngan Police to wear 'body worn video' cameras

Following a successful trial of ‘Body Worn Video’ (BWV) camera technology in 2013 and 2014, it was first supplied to frontline officers at Sydney’s Eastern Beaches in September 2015.

BWV is now being rolled out to more than 500 sites in metropolitan, regional and rural areas across the state.

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The cameras, worn overtly on the officers’ uniform, are activated for use in operational policing to record incidents or events in real-time where visual and audio evidence will support an investigation.

Nyngan Police Sergeant Tony Wood said the cameras will be a positive support to compliment other strategies to tackle crime, and will play an important part in their ongoing commitment to officer and community safety in Nyngan. 

“We will always activate them with the press of a button if we’re attending a job, so it allows us to still have confidential conversations with people. However if we’re attending a job where we might have some interaction with a suspect it will record our interactions and all conversations and is then downloaded on the computer for retrieval later on,” Sergeant Wood said.

“It’s a method for us to be held accountable for the community but it also produces better evidence for our prosecution at court.”

The ‘M-View Matrix’ camera records high-definition wide-view vision and high-quality audio, with a capability to take still photographs, record audio only and record in low-light situations.

The footage is encrypted and safely stored on the camera, and once downloaded onto the secure police database; all footage on the camera is erased.

Sergeant Wood said Nyngan is one of the first in the Western region to implement the cameras and said it demonstrates police keeping up to date with technology developments. 

“The NSW police haven’t really had any issue with our public relations, however police officers around the world are moving towards all police officers wearing BWV so the NSW police are keeping up with technology and staying ahead of the curve,” Sergeant Wood said. 

“We have found that our officers are supportive of them, they are easy to use, produce good quality video and they basically show that we act in a professional manner showing to the community we’re happy to be accountable,” he said.  

More information about BWV is available to the community via the NSW Police Force website: www.police.nsw.gov.au.