On one level this is almost funny, where it not for the real-world outcomes in so many instances: racial profiling, unjustifiable or simply unlawful arrests, violent restraint, the misuse of Taser and CS, all with little chance that complaints are taken seriously

The police say the "release of BWV is highly likely to exacerbate not prevent ‘trial by social media’ and increase media interest in an incident." What they call "trial by social media" is also called accountability. It led to this officer facing trial

This tweet has kind of taken off so if you're not already familiar with Netpol's work, just to let you know we have a 36-page report on the policing of this summer's #BlackLivesMatter protests coming out in the next few weeks... stay tuned

A reminder that filming the police ourselves, in every interactions with them, is probably our only route to greater accountability. Here's some tips

@netpol @DrAshleyNova Hide the evidence. Sounds like a plan. Not.

@netpol So for what it's supposed to be used for?

@netpol what the footage shows apart from the risks the officers face on a daily basis is that some need further training in confidence building and conflict management. As more is being put on the officers their support & training needs to be updated to deal with these difficult times

@netpol Great, I'm not going to get my accounts audited then ...

@netpol 👆Police managers, in their wisdom, have decided the only way to deal with inappropriate policing & abuse of power is to smother the evidence. Aren't #NPCC managers paid to manage problems which occur in inappropriate policing? Seems not. cc @IrvingsLawAAP @WMPolice @metpoliceuk

@netpol @jacquep WTF! That's the reason for body cams - checks & balances.

@netpol Seems perfectly in line with evidence against Brexit, UK Govt's policy on Russia and Trump's policy on Covid. Suppress the evidence and nothing to see here...

@netpol Oh so what you’re saying is that the police are bad

@netpol the program worked too good so now we can't lie to you convincingly, we better take it out!

@netpol Our bodycams showed us doing our jobs poorly so we took them off. Is there any other job in the world where this would be acceptable?

@netpol Wow. So they have recognised internal issues, but decided, rather than try to fix those issues, they are just going to hide them from the public?

@netpol And I didn’t think the racist shit could get any wilder, then you pull this reverse UNO card on us. -_-

@netpol It should be illegal not to release bodycam footage, and stackable if footage goes missing

@netpol "We found body cams worked and could help hold officers accountable, so naturally we threw them out.

@netpol Metropolitan police as usual they aren’t fit to serve the public. This does nothing to gain trust and further puts community policing at risk.

@netpol @FayeEcklar OK here is the policy... when the video makes us look good and shows the civilian in a bad way, we will release it. If the video shows the officer violates departmental policies or civilian rights, or makes the police look bad in any way, we won't release it. Got it?