By Steven Bell

THE SCOTTISH Government is monitoring the effectiveness of officer-mounted CCTV cameras being piloted by police in Tayside and Strathclyde.

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill is being pressed to supply officers across the country with head or body equipment to record incidents.

Scottish Labour’s community safety spokesman Paul Martin said body cameras are useful as immediate evidence is recorded at scenes of crime, and make convictions easier to prove in cases of assault against police officers.

“Body-cams could be a great tool both in the fight against crime but also in protecting police officers,” he said.

“Kenny MacAskill should ensure that we move to a situation that officers have body cameras as the norm and the funding should be put in place to ensure that the obvious advantages of these cameras are utilised across all Scottish forces.

“With assaults against police officers approaching 7000 a year there is no time for prevarication from Mr MacAskill. It’s time for action.”

The CCTV cameras are used by some officers in Tayside and Strathclyde as well as by the British Transport Police.

Tayside became the first Scottish force to pilot the equipment when it was issued to officers in the Perth and Kinross division almost a year ago.

The Courier revealed earlier this month that police in Dundee will also use the cameras in the coming months after funding for six units was secured from the city council.

The three to four inch long cameras record digitally—both images and sound—with the information stored on a hard drive at police headquarters.

At the time, the man in charge of policing Dundee, Chief Superintendent Colin McCashey, said the equipment had not been fully tested in the courts yet so it was taken on a case-by-case basis.

However, he speculated that in time all officers would be equipped with the kit—a “means of gathering the best evidence”—as standard.

A Scottish Government spokesman said that the use of body-worn cameras was an operational matter for police forces.

He said, “We are aware of a number of pilots currently being conducted by Scottish police forces, and we await with interest the outcome of these pilots.

“We are supportive of any initiatives that will help reduce crime in Scotland to make our communities safer and stronger.”