MORE frontline officers in Hampshire are to get body-worn video (BWV) cameras.
Research found public order and assault crimes have gone down by nearly 20 per cent in the force area where all frontline officers wear these cameras.
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies conducted the first independent evaluation on the impact of the cameras, which are attached to the chest of police officers.
Hampshire Constabulary is the first UK force to have made the cameras standard issue for all frontline police officers.
Numbers of the cameras are expected to swell to 500 to 2,800 in the county over the next year.
A report found public order and assault crimes dropped by 18 per cent, from just over 1,700 to 1,400 in the year that police were wearing cameras.
It also found that assaults on police went down by a third.
The results also showed an increase in prosecutions and convictions in cases of domestic assault.
500 more BWV cameras will be rolled out to frontline officers over the next three months and will be evaluated by the university.
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