But despite the generally peaceful nature of Sark, its police force are taking no chances in the fight against crime – and have been equipped with body-worn cameras.
The devices are used by police officers across Britain to record evidence while making an arrest – often following serious public order incidents on city streets.
And, according to the annual report of Sark’s outgoing Constable Glyn Williams, the cameras are now being used to record the goings on in the rather more sedate lanes of Sark.
Incidents reported to the island’s volunteer police unit during the past year include three noise complaints, two personal disputes, two thefts, three assaults and one ‘boat issue’.
The official number of incidents has dropped significantly during the past year following a decision not to list ‘tractor use permissions’ in the police report.
Despite the low crime rate the officers, who last year were equipped with pepper spray, believe the cameras could help to protect them.
Newly appointed Constable Sam Le Trobe-Bateman said: ‘There’s only a couple of us here so we need them for our protection and for the protection of other people.
‘They are useful for evidence gathering.’
The devices were first used by the Danish police in 2005 and have since become an important tool in policing for British forces including the States police, who started using body-worn cameras two years ago.
Sark’s volunteer police force, which consists of a Constable and a Vingtenier supported by a team of 11 ‘specials’, is at times backed up by full-time officers from Guernsey.
- Body-worn video devices are visible cameras that officers wear attached to their chest to capture video and audio evidence when attending all types of crime incidents to help support prosecutions.
- The devices were first used by the Danish police in 2005.
- They were first trialled by a UK police force in 2006 and 2007 and have since become an important tool in policing for British forces.
- Jerseys police force started using body-worn cameras two years ago.
- Under the Data Protection Act 1998, police forces have a duty to inform a person that their actions are being recorded on the devices for evidence in support of criminal prosecutions. This can be done by the officer stating clearly when a recording starts, or it can be as simple as the camera being obviously visible to a person being recorded.
- Body-worn cameras are more common in the UK than in the US.
- The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, recently announced that the majority of uniformed Met officers will be issued with body-worn video cameras by the end of March next year. He said that about 20,000 cameras would be used to help police fight crime and boost public confidence.
