10/06/2026
The recent decision by the New South Wales Police Service to move towards mandatory body worn camera activation for its officers follows a decade long campaign by Behlau Murakami Grant partner Ron Behlau for nationwide reform to the law and policy behind the use of body worn cameras by policing bodies.
Last week, New South Wales announced a move towards the mandatory use of body-worn cameras for its thousands of sworn officers in the wake of mounting allegations of a culture of brutality and impunity within the police force which follows Behlau's call for the mandatory use of the devices in his co-authored article published in the University of New South Wales Law Journal in 2021.
In the 2021 article, “Every move you make….Every word you say: Regulating Police Body Worn Cameras” Behlau called for the removal of the discretionary approach towards the use of the body worn cameras. Since the article was published, most states excluding New Sout Wales and Western Australia have adopted the papers proposals.
Historically, the use of body-worn cameras by NSW Police officers has been discretionary, meaning there have been no strict rules about when they should turn them on or off and individual officers have been able to make their own choices.
The proposals follow scathing criticism of NSW Police officers use of force and a sharp rise in complaints and civil suits against them.
“The reform, which follows the suggestions made in our article, will mean that whenever a police officer uses a police power in New South Wales, from stopping people in the street all the way to the appropriate use of violence, they will be obliged to immediately commence recording. The previous discretionary approach was problematic for a piece of technology which has always offered the ability to capture the best evidence” said Behlau.
The Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) NSW/ACT welcomed the announcement which has long been advocated for by the ALS and the state's police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC).
