The use of body-worn-videos in community stop and search scrutiny panels

Body-worn videos (BWVs) were introduced to provide greater transparency and accountability over street-level policing encounters. The low-visibility nature of stop and search has prevented officers from being held to account for the disproportionate and discriminatory exercise of police stops. This has had a detrimental impact upon public confidence and public perceptions of police legitimacy, particularly amongst ethnic minority communities. Community stop and search scrutiny panels seek to not only hold officers accountable for the misuse of their powers, but can also aid forces to understand the impact of their powers upon communities through broader assessments of fairness and proportionality. This article examines the introduction of BWVs to scrutiny panels in England and Wales. It evaluates the extent to which BWVs provide greater transparency over stop and search and questions whether this necessarily results in greater accountability? It argues that BWVs provide less transparency over why the search was conducted and greater transparency over how the search was conducted, leading to a prioritization of procedural justice assessments over legality. Barriers to accountability are also discussed alongside recommendations for improving the effectiveness of scrutiny panels via increased training, structure and governance.