Now they’ll be the ones pressing ‘record’. 

Body-mounted cameras, designed to be worn against an officer’s chest, have been rolled out to Wollongong and Lake Illawarra police districts, in a move tipped as a “game changer” when it comes to proving a crime in court.

Wollongong’s Superintendent Chris Craner said police would look to the body-worn camera technology to provide a reliable visual account of events as they happened. 

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“Why do people go and buy cameras for their car? It allows them to get evidence. It lets them prove their point. This is no different,” Supt Craner said.  

“You might have an aggressive male or female on ice, absolutely carrying on. It’s very hard to replicate that in a statement and give it true meaning to a judge or magistrate, six or eight weeks down the track.

“We’re going to have the evidence for courts to see what actually happens.”

The cameras are thought to have a role to play in reducing court costs and increasing prosecution rates. 

“If I was an offender and an incident was captured [on body-worn video] I think I’d probably be considering pleading guilty earlier,” Supt Craner said. “It’s going to be a massive game-changer for us in collecting evidence.”

The technology was trialed in 2013 and 2014 before it was rolled out to frontline officers at Sydney’s eastern beaches in September 2015. 

More than 2500 of the cameras are in use statewide, with another 2300 still to come. 

Officers access the machines at the start of their shift. They press ‘record’ – causing a red light to appear beside the lense – only when a noteworthy incident is happening or about to happen. At this point the officer must tell their subject that they are being filmed. 

Since June 2015, victims of domestic violence have had the option of having their evidence recorded on video.

The body-worn technology may have a role to play in cases where a victim of violence is reluctant to assist police. “The victim, at 6am that morning – you can see the fear in her eyes,” Supt Craner said. “Six or eight weeks later when she walked into court with no visible injuries, you can replay that and actually show the magistrate what happened at the time.”