Body cams issued to council licensing officers after aggressive situations
Council licensing officers in North Kesteven have been issued with body worn cameras after reports of incidents of aggressive or confrontational behaviour while visiting premises during the course of their work.
According to a report informing the district council’s Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Committee set to meet on Wednesday, June 10, the action comes after two routine visits to premises to check they are complying with licensing laws and conditions where officers were subjected to “very unpleasant situations”.
According to Licensing Team Leader, Neil Chadwick, it was felt that the body worn video BWV systems (similar to those used by police, football referees and even Lincolnshire Coop shop staff) would provide evidence in relation to any issues identified regarding complying with the laws, whilst providing a deterrent to any aggressive or confrontational behaviour by staff or business owners.
Mr Chadwick says that, for the most part, low level licensing breaches are rectified within a short period and well within the timescales given. However, recently the team have been identifying some more serious issues of non-compliance such as no CCTV, or CCTV not meeting the criteria defined on the licence.
This can lead to a closure notice as a first step.
Mr Chadwick reports: “When conducting such action earlier this year, the team were subject to very aggressive behaviour when conducting the process. The premises manager had confirmed at an earlier visit that an issue with the CCTV had been due to an unforeseen technical problem which was being rectified that day. When the team revisited to check compliance, the CCTV was still not working and no remedial work had been carried out.
"The manager denied any conversation surrounding the remedial action that he had advised was in place at the time of the previous visit and claimed that the imposing of the closure notice was disproportionate and unnecessary. The use of BWV in this instance would have negated this argument completely. In addition, it would have clearly captured any aggressive behaviour or acted as a deterrent for such.”
He accepted that such visits always come with increased risk of confrontation on all levels. The team are well aware of this and are used to dealing with challenging situations and are experienced in dealing with confrontation and the use of de-escalation skills. “That said, the challenging situations being encountered are becoming more difficult and it was felt that to take early action to introduce BWV to the inspections regime would be beneficial.”
Systems have been put in place to properly handle and store such data collection, says the council and a verbal announcement is made that the inspection will be video recorded.
If there are no compliance issues arising from a visit, the footage is deleted. If there are remedial actions required, the footage is saved pending confirmation that the remedial actions have been completed, at which point the footage is deleted.
Footage will be retained for longer periods where it leads to a licensing hearing or formal prosecution.