Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton has rejected calls for new laws to govern the use of body-worn cameras, arguing legislation wouldn’t account for “honest error” if an officer forgot to switch on their device.

As Victoria Police embarks on one of the biggest deployments of body worn cameras in the world, The Age revealed this week that the force’s guidelines give police the discretion to deactivate the cameras, edit or redact the footage before a court hearing, and limit complainants’ access to the images.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. Credit:Justin McManus

Any breaches are also dealt with in-house by the force’s own professional standards unit, prompting calls for tougher safeguards and penalties enshrined in law to ensure the system isn’t abused.

However, Mr Ashton told ABC Radio on Thursday there was no need for legislation at this stage, noting there might be cases in which an officer arrived at an incident and forgot to turn on their device.