Lancashire Constabulary is said to be the first police force in the country to use new cutting-edge body-worn cameras

Manufactured by Motorola Solutions the cameras are integrated with the force's digital policing app improving 'evidence quality and transparency'.

Police forces across the UK rely on body-worn cameras to improve the safety and accountability of their frontline teams and capture evidence. In the first three months of lockdown, UK police forces saw a 21 percent increase in assaults on their officers, according to a study.

Dave Hannan, Chief Inspector at Lancashire Constabulary said: “This investment is about giving our officers the best tools we can for the job, making it quicker and more efficient and improving the quality of evidence, so we can provide a great service to citizens.”

“The roll out of this technology will be a vital tool in bringing offenders to justice, especially those who take part in crime that is naturally more difficult to prosecute such as domestic abuse and public order offences.”

Before using the integrated body-worn camera solution, Lancashire Constabulary recorded different clips throughout their shift and tagged them back at the station when their shift ended. This was said to be a time consuming and highly manual procedure that could lead to delays or inaccuracies.

The integration of the new cameras with the 'Pronto' digital policing app means frontline teams can now view lists of recordings stored on the camera, tag the recording using data from their app and link this to incidents on-the-go.

The new technology is believed to help officers to significantly speed up decision-making, capture evidence and maintain accountability and transparency both within and between departments and communities. It also provides an automatic 30 second video pre-recording feature so that officers do not miss the beginning of an incident.

Fergus Mayne, country manager UK and Ireland at Motorola Solutions said: “Integrated body-worn camera solutions are a vital and objective tool for improving the safety of officers and the public. The integration with the Motorola Solutions Pronto digital policing application takes seamless policing to the next level and ensures end-to-end workflows.”