Schools trial body-worn cameras to tackle bad behaviour
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Staff from at least two schools are now wearing video cameras as part of efforts to improve behaviour and address violence, it has emerged.
Southfields Academy in Wimbledon, as well as an unnamed school in south Hampshire, have begun using the cameras that in recent years have become popular with police forces across the country.
Basingstoke College of Technology is also trialling the devices, known as Calla, which are produced by a firm called Reveal. Two schools previously trialled the technology for a three-month period in 2017, but their use was not continued on a permanent basis.
Reveal said the school in Hampshire is in an area that experiences a "significant amount of behavioural issues", reflected in high exclusion rates. With limited local alternative provision, it said the result is "regular incidents of external antisocial behaviour affecting the school and the community".
The deputy head teacher of the school said: “The main reason we brought cameras in was not to deal with our own students, but to deal with unknown children that came onto our site from other schools and the local community.
"We have had incidents where children come in through the school gates and onto the site with the intention to disrupt the running of the school through verbal or physical abuse.
“We had a serious incident in October that resulted in the school having to be locked down, following an unknown male entering the school site to attack one of our students. This incident resulted in two teachers being assaulted as they tried to intercept and protect the student.
“We’ve attempted to resolve the situation through making police referrals, but if the children can’t be identified then there is very little we can do. Our CCTV system is fairly old and doesn’t capture the entire problem. So the challenge was to find a way to identify the young people and pass on evidence of the incidents with the police."
The school is using a total of six cameras, distributed among gate staff, the site team, on-call staff and the deputy head teacher as designated safeguarding lead.
Members of staff using the cameras wear high-visibility jackets with “body worn video” written across the back in order to make it clear to the public that they are recording when necessary.
“Before we had the cameras we were referring incidents constantly to the police who kept asking for footage because our word alone was not enough to identify and convict the young people," the deputy head teacher said.
"Even with CCTV footage and the testimony of staff and students it was likely the person would only receive a quiet word from the police. Now with the cameras I can play the video to the police, and they have been very complimentary of their use because they can finally move convictions forward with sufficient evidence, and some of the young people have even been arrested as a result."
Scott Hayden, digital innovation specialist at Basingstoke College of Technology, said they have been using the cameras to "enhance teaching and learning".
In September 2019, children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield, recommended that police officers and youth workers should be based in schools to protect children from violence.
Last month, Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said more police officers will be placed in schools across London to help stem knife crime.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said it does not collect information on the use of body cameras in schools.
"It is head teachers and management teams in schools and colleges that are best placed to make decisions about how to manage pupil behaviour and security risks.
"For those schools that use body cameras, the Information Commissioner's Office has published a code of practice to help organisations stay within the law," she added.
"These guidelines cover best practice on issues surrounding body-worn cameras, including sensitivity of footage and encryption of data."
