The footage featured a person being arrested for possession of illegal drugs, during which the arresting officer made an error while administering a caution.

The footage was accessed largely “without legitimate purpose” at 20 police stations on 248 occasions.

ACTION has been taken against 74 PSNI officers who inappropriately accessed body-worn camera footage. An investigation into a separate matter revealed all of the officers had accessed the footage regarding a specific arrest without a “legitimate purpose” for doing do. The footage featured an arrest of a member of the public 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 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.” The issue came to light during a Police Ombudsman investigation of a separate matter, during which usage of the PSNI’s body-worn video system was examined. Police Ombudsman investigators established that between December 2019…