Body-worn cameras have been rolled out across every state and territory police force in Australia.
But upcoming research suggests that the impact of the use of these cameras in domestic violence call outs can be complex.
Some say they can help victim survivors, while others say they can have a detrimental impact.
For Katie*, having these police cameras present in the aftermath of a domestic violence-related incident played a pivotal role in documenting what had happened to her.
"I just wasn't going to have a protection order against me that I did not deserve," she tells ABC RN's Law Report.
The assault
In 2020, Katie was assaulted by a former partner. She used to live in the same apartment complex, and one day he came upstairs with a girlfriend, and he attacked Katie on the verandah of her home.
It was a frightening moment, she says.
"The neighbour was screaming out at him that she just called the police. Other neighbours came out and helped pull me inside."
"They left, and I was at the house all by myself, just kind of vomiting and like laying down. And just in shock."
The assault had occurred around midday. The police didn't arrive until seven or eight hours later as they'd initially gone to the wrong address.
The two female police officers asked her to make a statement.
"They tried to talk me into making a statement. And I wasn't ready to do that," Katie recalls.
She was worried that if she made a statement, her former partner would cause more harm.
"I thought, oh, maybe he'll just leave me alone now. Maybe that's the end, you know," she says.
Later that day, the police officers returned to tell Katie that her former partner had lodged a police protection order against her, protecting him and his girlfriend.
"And I was kind of gobsmacked. I was like, what? But my neighbour called you guys here because I got physically assaulted on my verandah in front of everyone by a man," she says.
"And they said, well, you didn't make the statement first."
Katie sought legal advice and her lawyers obtained body-worn camera footage from the incident.
This footage gave a clear picture of what happened in the aftermath of the event.
"I was obviously in shock with my breathing — I looked like a kicked dog, pretty much," Katie says.
"It showed them talking to me, and then going downstairs and talking to him and her. But it showed [her former partner] in a very kind of aggressive, heightened state," she says.
The attempt by police to pursue a domestic violence order against Katie was ultimately dropped. She says the body-worn camera footage played an important role in that.
"I don't hold any grudges against the police officers. I think their role in our society and our community is so important and vital. And I think it's very difficult, the job that they do."
Painted as 'neurotic'
Having body-worn cameras present when police are investigating a domestic violence incident hasn't always worked in the victim's favour, Deakin University criminologist Dr Mary Iliadis says.
Dr Iliadis has researched the implications of these cameras in domestic violence call outs.
In 2020, the team she led surveyed 452 police officers in Queensland and Western Australia.
This research found that many police officers were supportive of body-worn camera technology and there were benefits. However, there were also various limitations that came with it, including not always being able to show ongoing patterns of violence.
Deakin University's latest research, to be published in early 2023, is a nationwide survey of 119 domestic violence victims and 15 in-depth interviews with survivors about the impact of body-worn cameras.
Dr Iliadis says the most common concern among victim survivors was the potential for body-worn cameras to mis-identify the primary aggressor.
"We had a victim survivor report that they were often painted as a neurotic female, as someone who was paranoid, and overreacting. And they were highly concerned that this would be misinterpreted," Dr Iliadis says.
Another victim survivor in the survey reported that they could be mistaken as the abuser in these moments when they are triggered and acting out of survival response.
"When the body-worn camera footage is used as evidence, it doesn't show the full extent of the emotional, verbal, financial, or control and manipulation that occurs within the context of that relationship," Dr Iliadis adds.
"Other victims stated that they were worried about how other victims would feel when being recorded. And if they will then call police again, knowing that there is now a video of them at their darkest point in time," she adds.
Weighing up the benefits
Former WA police inspector Darren Henstock, who led the rollout of police body-worn cameras in that state from 2018 to 2020, acknowledges that these cameras alone are not "a silver bullet".
"It never has been the magical panacea that's going to solve everything as it was once claimed," Henstock says.
But it does provide officers and victims with another significant source of evidence that can be used in court, he adds.
"A picture paints a thousand words and what an officer can describe in a statement or verbally some time after the incident is a lot different to what a full video in HD quality can often show, that gives a jury or gives a court a significant understanding of the whole situation," he says.
He says these cameras can also help to de-escalate hostile situations through deterrence, when people improve their behaviour in the presence of CCTV or body-worn cameras. But it's not as effective if people don't realise they're being recorded.
"One of those reasons why officers give that warning that [they're] recording is to draw light to the fact that they are wearing cameras," he says.
The cameras can also benefit victims when it comes to recounting the trauma they have suffered, says Julie Sarkozi, the director of law reform and education with the Queensland women's legal service.
"Trauma memories are often not chronological. [We know] that they're scattered, and that we might even not remember certain things as an ego defence," Sarkozi says.
"So all of those things considered, if there is body-worn camera footage of what has happened directly after it has happened, then that, of course, does put the aggrieved in a better circumstance in relation to her not having to retell, and remember, in a way that is usually what's expected in evidence, which is chronological coherence. So it does sidestep that difficulty."
Despite the benefits that police body-worn cameras have to offer in response to domestic and family violence, their limitations should also be acknowledged says Dr Iliadis.
"The thing we're yet to fully understand, and this is part of the aim of our study, is how we can balance any potential risk against the benefit that might emerge from body-worn cameras.
"So understanding how we can utilise body-worn cameras in a way that prioritises victim survivors' safety and wellbeing."
*Names have been changed
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