Trial body-worn cameras to collect statements from family violence incident scenes

The 2016/17 State Budget included a $227 million investment in new police technology, such as the rollout of body-worn cameras to frontline police. These cameras will be used for a range of general policing purposes, including collecting statements and evidence from family violence incident scenes. The body-worn cameras project includes the installation of storage capability to enable appropriate transfer, storage, editing and retrieval of data.

Victoria Police will conduct and evaluate a 12 month a trial of taking a digitally recorded evidence in chief statement from a victim at a family violence using a body worn camera. The trial locations are Epping and Ballarat police stations and the Family Violence Investigations Units within those divisions are also participating. The court locations impacted by the trial are Ballarat Magistrates’ Courts, Heidelberg Magistrates’ Courts and Melbourne Magistrates’ Courts.

Victoria Police has deployed more than 11,000 body-worn cameras to frontline police across the state, for general duties purposes. The general duties use of body-worn cameras is supported by the Justice Legislation Amendment (Body-Worn Cameras and Other Matters) Act 2017 which ensures that body-worn cameras can be used lawfully, and the footage is appropriately protected.

Victoria Police completed a 12 month a trial of taking a digitally recorded evidence in chief statement from a victim at a family violence incident using a body-worn camera. The trial was evaluated by Monash University and is expected to be tabled in Parliament in September. The evaluation report will inform decision making about the future direction of the initiative.

The Justice Legislation Amendment (Family Violence Protection and Other Matters) Act 2018 supports the use of body-worn cameras for recording statements in family violence matters and allows these statements to be used by victims as their evidence in chief.

Implemented