Tasmania Police officers will soon have extra protection with the introduction of body cameras.
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Police Minister Rene Hidding announced the $3.4 million state budget commitment to police safety on Monday.
The funds will allow the roll out of Body Worn Cameras for all frontline officers in the state over the next four years.
“Policing is a high-risk occupation … while there is safety in numbers, there is also more that we can do,” Mr Hidding said.
“Where they have been used in other jurisdictions, these cameras have been shown to provide significant operational benefits for police, including through influencing the behaviour of offenders, potentially reducing the incidence of assaults on police.”
It’s not the first time body cameras have been on the agenda in Tasmania, with the state’s police union pushing for the technology in 2015.
At the time, Police Association of Tasmania acting president Gavin Cashion said it was a “ridiculous situation” when frontline officers did not have access to the cameras yet “every member of the public has access to their mobile phone video camera and is free to use it in a public place”.
The first round of cameras are expected to be rolled out later this year.
The technology will be used to assist police with their in-field operations, particularly when responding to family violence incidents.
“They can be used to record statements at the scene of an incident, and have also been found to improve accountability for police officers,” Mr Hidding said.
”They may lead to an increase in guilty pleas, which avoid the necessity for victims to give evidence in court.”