Northern Ireland Police Deploy 2,500 Cameras from Edesix
31st Oct 2019
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) now 2,500 body-worn cameras (BWCs) from Edesix used by more than 7,000 officers covering about 173,000 incidents each year in Northern Ireland.Local policing teams, neighborhood policing teams, tactical support groups, roads policing units, dog section, district support teams and armed response units have used the BWCs since 2016.
"Video evidence puts the victims of crime first,” said PSNI Superintendent David Moore. “The pilot of this technology in Foyle district demonstrated how body-worn video has the potential to improve the quality of evidence provided by police officers and thereby increase the number of offenders brought to justice. Video evidence provides a compelling account of events and enables the raw emotion and action from a scene to be replayed in the courts in a manner that could never be captured in a witness statement.
"It also supports accountability and transparency, both of which are key elements in increasing public confidence in policing. The introduction of this new technology is the latest example of our commitment to these principles as we continue to work together with the community to keep people safe."
Armed response and firearms teams are also being equipped with head-mounted cameras because chest-mounted cameras could potentially obstruct an officer's view during firearms use. The Metropolitan Police recently began rolling out 1,000 head-mounted cameras, with West Yorkshire Police and North Wales Police following suit, an Edesix statement said.
Founded in 2002, and headquartered in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Edesix is a global provider of BWCs. The company was acquired by Vigilant Solutions, a subsidiary of VaaS International Holdings, in October 2018 for an undisclosed sum. At the beginning of 2019, VaaS was bought by Motorola Solutions for $445 million.
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