A survey has been launched to gauge public opinion of a six-month trial of police in Bunbury and Perth wearing body-worn video cameras.

The cameras, which are worn either on the head or shoulder-mounted, provide video corroboration of police dealings with the public and are part of the move to evidence-based policing in WA.

Expected benefits of body-worn cameras A reduction in the need for officers to use violence

A reduction in the need for officers to use violence Fewer complaints against police officers

Fewer complaints against police officers Fewer false reports against police

Fewer false reports against police The potential for higher successful prosecution rates

The potential for higher successful prosecution rates The potential for the cameras to change public behaviour

Inspector Darren Henstock, the project director for the Evidence Based Policing Division with the WA police said the objective of the division was to reduce demand on policing services by analysis of international research into what does and does not work..

The use of body-worn cameras has been studied in both the UK and the US but Inspector Henstock said that the WA context was not necessarily the same as overseas.

He said the equipment was expensive and data costs were high when spread across the 6,000 police officers in Western Australian.

Inspector Henstock said the results of the both the trial and the survey would be used to build a business case for providing the cameras throughout the state.

Survey results

The results from the survey into public opinion on body worn cameras will not be available before the end of the year or later when the assessment is complete.

However, according to a police media spokesperson, public feedback on police social media pages shows that 90 per cent of people supported the idea.

Those comments which expressed concern speculated that cameras might be turned on or off to capture only what police want to video.

Inspector Henstock said public perception was an important part of policing and that it would be important for the community to understand exactly how the cameras would be used.

He stressed that the scientific academic trial underway meant a more rigorous comparison of results versus resources spent.

"We can use resources in a more directed and targeted way."

The survey, which was launched last Friday, is supported by ECU, Murdoch and Griffith Universities.

Questions gauge public feeling about camera use, whether people have noticed officers wearing the equipment and whether they believe that the cameras would change behaviour in any way.

"What the public think will form part of that business case," Inspector Henstock said.

In addition, police and WA universities initiated a forum six weeks ago with the goal of forming a think tank to look at more interesting areas of research.

Inspector Henstock said the results needed to be independently assessed and verified.

"[Academics] understand criminology, understand the nuances of what we do and will help us to design effective experiments," he said.

The evidence speaks

Experience overseas shows that a scientific approach can contradict accepted thinking.

One area of policing that is receiving focus currently is "hotspot policing", Inspector Henstock said.

"We all know anecdotally that there are areas where there is high demand for policing services."

Conventional wisdom suggested that we flood the area with police officers over an eight hour tour of duty and that will solve the problem.

"Research is showing now that if you do three discrete 15 minute patrols within eight hours, [this approach] provides exactly the same benefits as that eight hour tour of duty."

He said, on the other hand, studies in the UK and US supported belief by officers that the cameras would produce better evidence.

"Offenders understand that there is no wriggle room and they plead guilty a lot earlier in the judicial process."

"The early pleas also ease the load on the court system."

The future of policing

"We want … to foster an ethos of evidence-based policing in Australasia," Inspector Henstock said.

He said the Evidence Based Policing Division had a number of experiments running.

Future projects could investigate domestic violence, including trigger factors, plus other methods used around the world deal with the issue.

Inspector Henstock said repeat burglaries and the support of victims were other areas of interest.

"We'd like to revisit hotspots and how we do our patrols and how to feed back to the officers the benefits of what they're doing out there."