Sir Steve House warns against releasing more police body-worn footage

Sir Steve House said body-worn footage should only be released "in extremis"

One of the country's most senior police officers has said forces should not release footage from police body-worn cameras as it may make them "look bad".

Met Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Steve House said showing some of the tactics police deploy might have an adverse impact on public attitudes.

The Police Federation is among those who believe forces should be "more proactive" about releasing such videos.

Sir Steve said the current position was to only publish them "in extremis".

The issue has become more acute for police leaders recently following a number of social media clips which have been taken by members of the public, at times in controversial circumstances.

In July, the Police Federation's National Chair John Apter said such videos were "incredibly damaging to policing" and releasing more body-worn footage would mean people "can see the full picture".

Some have argued for more footage recorded on police body-worn cameras to be released

In a speech to an online conference of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales, Sir Steve said the "main issue" was that if footage was released to make police "look good" then there would be pressure to release it in every case.

"Many of the tactics that we use for officer safety, and are trained, frankly look bad... One officer cannot restrain a violent individual - it can take four or five officers to do that safely," he said.

He added it meant that police needed to "be quite discriminating" and body-worn footage would only be released "in extremis", such as "if we think it will be necessary to prevent outbreaks of serious disorder or serious violence".

'Help public confidence'

Speaking about Sir Steve's comments, Mr Apter said he agreed "entirely" with what was said and "footage cannot be released in every situation" as some tactics "could look unnecessary or heavy-handed".

"However, when there are no outstanding issues and releasing it would help public confidence about the police actions, then it should be," he added.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has previously said she would "love" to release more of the footage but there were potential issues with privacy laws, while at times it risked undermining investigations and proceedings.