Police Powers Ought Not to Compromise Public’s Privacy
During Parliament’s last sitting week, amendments were passed to the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, allowing the use of “in-car video” systems by NSW Police. An “in-car” video (otherwise known as an ICV) is an audio-visual recording system that NSW Police are installing in highway patrol vehicles. According to the Government, by mid-2005, 344 NSW Police highway patrol cars will have been fitted with ICVs.
The background to these amendments lies in recommendations given by the Hon. Mr Justice Wood, in the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service. One of the recommendations given by Justice Wood was that all dealings between police and citizens be electronically recorded.
I have absolutely no qualms with the underlying motivation of the amendments carried to the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002. The amendments will require the use of an ICV, where installed in a highway police vehicle, in situations where a couple of requirements are satisfied together. First, a police officer must be following a vehicle with the intention of pulling that vehicle over. Second, a vehicle must have been pulled over and thirdly the police must investigate any offence arising out of that stop. The amendments will require police to warn individuals that their conversations are being audio-visually recorded.
The ICV is a commendable idea and will facilitate a number of beneficial outcomes, for both police and the public. There is no doubt that such a system will go towards providing an accurate record of the interactions between police and private citizens.
The importance of this recording primarily lies in its evidentiary use in our judicial system. There has been many a time where written evidence has been allegedly falsified, mislaid or misrepresented. Countless cases exist where innocent people have been framed or have had adverse inferences drawn on their character because they have not been able to back up their written testimony by a visual reference. The availability of a video recording accompanied by an audio recording taken via a lapel microphone worn by the police officer will, in some way, mitigate these problems.
Sometimes facts leading to accidents are not altogether clear. For example, it is envisaged that the ICV system will assist in putting together the jigsaw puzzle of facts surrounding fatalities from police pursuits. If the ICV system is recording events, on a visual and audio basis, then the ICV will help to give a clear picture of what events occurred leading up to the accident.
More than 1800 police pursuits in NSW over the past 10 years have ended with a crash, resulting in at least 54 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Only eleven people have died as a result of police shootings over the same period. Generally, a cloud of secrecy has enveloped deaths caused by police pursuits and there is a tendency for police to shun any responsibility. The ICV system will seek to bright to light what has invariably remained in the dark for so long.
As an aside, it is most distressing to note that despite the number of deaths from car chases, few police are publicly brought to account. Police are rarely prosecuted in the “normal way” when it is known that they have been responsible for killing innocent people.
Disciplinary action rather than prosecution under the full strength of the law is generally taken against police that have caused accidents arising from police pursuits. The Herald reported in November this year that five years ago a jury, at the direction of a District Court judge, found a highway patrolman Sergeant Malcolm Sinton, not guilty of dangerous driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm. “The Crown had provided insufficient evidence for a conviction”, said Judge Deborah Payne. The ICV system will help in securing a conviction in these circumstances.
Then, in July 2000, a magistrate refused to convict a Newcastle policeman, Constable Adam John Price, of negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm, saying the penalty of 12 months off the road was too harsh. The pursuit that led to the charges had placed Constable Price, his passenger, Senior Constable Ken Leacey and an innocent bystander, Ian James Butler, in hospital. Mr Butler, a train driver, was on his way to work. The police car hit his oncoming car after skidding on gravel at Fern Bay. Mr Butler suffered facial, neck and back injuries. The ICV system will go some way in providing a formal account of the circumstances surrounding such awful events.
A couple of other benefits from the ICV system are worth noting briefly. The ICV will also allow the recording of roadside searches, will provide occupational health and safety benefits to police officers and will generally serve as an anti-corruption mechanism for the public.
All in all, the ICV system is a great idea. But there are two points that come to mind in counting the benefits of this system. First, the Government has the intention of fitting 344 NSW police patrol cars with the ICV system. In my opinion, all police patrol cars ought to have the ICV system installed as soon as reasonably possible. Given the merits of this system and the benefits for both the police and the public, there ought to be a mandatory requirement for the installation of ICV systems in all vehicles potentially involved in police pursuits.
Second, and importantly, the electronic recordings of dealings between police and citizens, captured by the ICV system, ought not to be exploited for commercial use.
While I am not against the idea of recording dealings between police and citizens, as part of assisting the function of the police as upholder of the law, it is of utmost importance that these dealings remain private. There is a need to protect both the police and private citizens, in their mutual dealings and ICVs will go some way towards accomplishing this.
The dealings recorded in these videos should not be sold by anyone for use on TV programs, whose main objective is to expose and ridicule the affairs of private persons in a wanton manner. Electronic material obtained through the ICV system should not be sold to television producers to make such viewing material as an Australian “police pursuit” TV series, nor should such material be sold to overseas markets to be used in programs commonly labelled “World’s Worst Drivers”.
Such programs denigrate, belittle and sensationalise the work undertaken by police and potentially “make fun” of terrible tragedies that sometimes arise through these pursuits. I do not believe that such sensitive material should in any way, shape or form be sold to producers in the name of the almighty dollar. The exposition of delicate events such as the ones potentially recorded by the ICV system ought not to be used in a context other than in assisting the judicial arm of our government to do its job.
THIS IS GORDON MOYES.
