Commissioner’s office scrutinises Gwent Police’s body worn camera footage

Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Mudd has held her quarterly scrutiny panel to examine the use of force, and stop and search powers, by Gwent Police.

The Commissioner’s legitimacy scrutiny panel brings together members of the Commissioner’s office, Gwent Police’s independent advisory group, senior police officers, and professionals working for the youth offending service, to review body worn camera footage of incidents where force, or stop and search, were used.

Panel members viewed a dip sample of footage from recent incidents including the stop and search of a driver where drugs were thought to be present in the vehicle, a reported domestic abuse incident, and a situation where officers discharged a tazer. The session focused primarily on incidents involving children and young people from ethnic heritage backgrounds and officers were praised for their de-escalation techniques to bring situations under control. Several points of learning were identified and will be fed back to the officers involved.

Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Mudd said: “The panel is a good example of my office working in partnership with Gwent Police to review the use of stop and search, and the use of force, to ensure that these powers are deployed fairly and effectively.

“It provides an independent layer of scrutiny and helps to identify examples of good work, but also incidents where further learning is required. All opportunities for learning and improvements are fed back directly to senior police officers and since the panel was introduced in 2013 my team have seen a real improvement in the interactions between the police and the public.

“It is one of the ways that I hold the Chief Constable to account of behalf of the public, and helps to ensure that processes are being carried out in a way that is open, honest and transparent.”

You can view reports from panel meetings on the Office of the Police an Crime Commissioner’s website.