Force reprimanded for deleting body cam footage

South Yorkshire Police lost thousands of body-worn video evidence

A police force has been reprimanded after it deleted more than 96,000 pieces of body-worn video evidence, relating to 126 criminal cases.

An investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found South Yorkshire Police (SYP) did not have the appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to keep the evidence, recorded between July 2023 and May 2023, secure.

The force said three criminal cases had been impacted, which included two cases of assault against police officers and one case of affray.

Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman said: "We are sorry that any victim of crime faced this challenge whilst going through the criminal justice system."

According to the ICO, body-worn video evidence was uploaded and stored to a central hub which could be accessed and managed, along with all of the force's digital evidence, via a secure system.

Following an upgrade in May 2023, the system began to struggle to process the data, and a local drive workaround was put in place.

In summer 2023, South Yorkshire Police discovered that 96,174 pieces of original footage had been deleted from its system on 26 July.

Loss of evidence

The loss of data related to 126 criminal cases, of which three were impacted by the loss of evidence, the ICO said.

South Yorkshire Police said one of the cases may have progressed to the first court hearing if footage had been available, but said given there was no additional independent evidence, progression to the prosecution stage had looked uncertain.

In addition, the ICO said the force had been unable to provide body-worn video evidence for nine civil claims and one Judicial Review, and could not respond to four Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

Prior to the deletion, 95,033 pieces of body-worn video evidence had been copied to a new system the force was in the process of implementing but, due to poor record-keeping, the ICO said the force was unable to confirm the exact number of files deleted without any copies made.

Sally Anne Poole, head of investigations at the ICO, said: "This incident highlights the importance of having detailed policies and procedures in place to mitigate against the loss of evidence.

"People rightly have high expectations that our police forces and services, which protect us, also protect the personal information they hold."

Storage back-up

In issuing the reprimand, the ICO set out seven recommendations, which included ensuring there is an adequate storage back-up solution and process to restore lost footage.

South Yorkshire Police said all recommendations had been implemented.

Deputy Chief Constable Poolman added: "We do not underestimate the damage any loss of data can do to our communities' trust and confidence in us.

"We did, of course, work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to minimise the impact on criminal proceedings and judicial outcomes and, whilst even one is too many, it is believed only three cases were potentially detrimentally affected by the loss of body-worn video footage."

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