Imperial security team trials body cameras
Imperial Community Safety and Security (CSS) officers have started a four-week trial of wearing Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) on patrol duty since Wednesday 20th August.
According to Imperial’s BWC code of practice, the policy aims at enhancing on-campus “safety and wellbeing” as well as protecting security staff from inaccurate allegations. A wider rollout of BWCs could follow if the trial is deemed successful.
All CSS team officers involved in the trial will receive practical and legal training beforehand. Officers may only activate their cameras in “specific situations” of challenge, including any situation involving the use of force. The code of practice specifies that BWC activation must be preceded by a verbal and will be further signalled by LED indicators and an audible tone.
The Imperial webpage dedicated to the trial indicated that any footage would be wiped from the cameras daily and stored on encrypted servers operated by the BWC provider. All files are to be deleted after 30 days “unless needed for evidence or legal purposes”, in accordance with data protection laws.
The UK GDPR allows any person caught on film to request all stored footage of themselves, and Imperial stated that students could complain about being filmed through normal procedures.
The use of BWC by security staff has already been implemented by other UK universities, including Newcastle in 2013 and Bristol in 2021.
The UK government has recently passed the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law. It requires public venues such as universities to enforce appropriate “public protection measures”, which can encompass the “monitoring of the premises”.
The College's BWC experiment also comes a little over a year after the establishment of the Palestine solidarity encampment on Queen’s lawn, which has occasionally been the scene of heated exchanges between Imperial security officers and activists. Protesters have notably alleged that a university security officer called a student a ‘wanker’ during an intervention last summer. In total, two disciplinary investigations “involving allegations relating to such protests” were undertaken by Imperial, leading to no disciplinary action.
Imperial said feedback, questions and comments concerning the trial were welcome at security.control@imperial.ac.uk.
