Over 70 PSNI officers disciplined for watching bodycam footage of drugs arrest for ‘entertainment’

OVER 70 PSNI officers have been disciplined after an investigation found they had inappropriately accessed bodycam footage of an arrest for “entertainment and amusement”.

The footage featured a person being arrested for possession of illegal drugs, during which the arresting officer made an error while administering a criminal caution, causing a colleague to laugh in the background.

The issue came to light during a Police Ombudsman investigation of a separate matter, during which usage of the PSNI’s bodycam video system was examined.

Police Ombudsman investigators found that between December 2019 and November 2022, footage of the incident had been accessed with a legitimate purpose 248 times.

This was done by 82 police officers and one civilian staff member, who were based at 20 police stations across Northern Ireland.

While most had accessed the footage once or twice, many did so more often, including one officer who inappropriately accessed it 21 times.

The investigation found that only five PSNI officers and one civilian staff member had a proper reason for accessing the video.

Some 74 officers had no legitimate reason for doing so, and two officers had since retired and could no longer be held accountable for misconduct.

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Another PSNI officer remains the subject of a separate and ongoing Police Ombudsman investigation examining potential criminality in relation to accessing the footage.

The Chief Executive of the Police Ombudsman’s Office, Hugh Hume, said: “The video may have been viewed for entertainment and amusement, but the officers who did so showed little regard for the privacy of the man being arrested, nor for the emotional wellbeing of their colleague featured in the video.”

He added that the response that investigators received from PSNI officers when asked to provide reasons for accessing the video “suggested an apparent lack of awareness that doing so might constitute a criminal or misconduct offence”.

“A number of officers indicated in their responses that as a result of the investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office they had refreshed their knowledge of PSNI guidance regarding body-worn video, which I welcome,” said Hume.

He added that the decision to take “management action” against the 74 officers was a “reasonable and proportionate outcome”.

He also welcomed the PSNI’s acceptance of three Police Ombudsman recommendations to prevent misuse of body-worn video.

However, Hume expressed concern that the PSNI did not accept a fourth recommendation for a dip sampling exercise “to evaluate the scale of unauthorised access to the body-worn video system”.

“Given the weaknesses in the control of access to body-worn video it is therefore our view that there remains a significant residual risk that private and personal data can be accessed without a legitimate policing purpose,” said Hume.

“On this occasion the Police Ombudsman has taken the exceptional decision to share these findings with the Information Commissioner’s Office in order that they can consider whether our insights can inform their work.”

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