22 November 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Police body cameras – not the panacea they are claimed to be

originally by: Netpol
published: November 2013

A number of police forces have recently announced that they hold large scale trials of body worn video cameras for all officers on patrol.

These cameras will be attached to police uniforms, and can be switched on or off at the discretion of officers.

The reaction from civil liberties organisations have been muted, but Netpol has spoken out publicly against the routine use of bodycams, and the implications of further extending police surveillance capacity.

5 November 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Peter Barnes inquest: ‘Lessons should be learned’

by: Bradford Telegraph and Argus
published: 4th November 2013

An inquest today heard that lessons should be learned after a patient was found dead in the grounds of a Bradford psychiatric hospital one week after he went missing on an unsupervised cigarette break.

Angus Moon QC, representing the privately-run Cygnet Hospital, Wyke, was making submissions yesterday in the final days of what has been a four-week hearing into the death of 31-year-old Peter Barnes on October 13, 2011.

28 October 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Tippa Naphtali speaks out: Fury as ‘lethal’ Taser use on children rises

by: The Sunday Post
published: 27 October 2013

Tippa Naphtali speaks out to Sunday Post.

A furious row has broken out over the use of police stun guns on children. Official guidelines warn of potentially fatal consequences if youths are hit by the 50,000-volt Taser devices. But despite this, their use in confrontations with under-18s has rocketed by 1,000% over five years.

Figures show police used the weapons on just 29 occasions in 2007 but that shot up to 323 in 2011, an average of six times a week.

This included firing them outright and doing “drive stuns” in which the device is placed against a youth’s body and fired without causing incapacitation.

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