London firefighters first to get body-worn cameras

Firefighters in London will be the first in the country to be issued with body worn cameras following a damning report which found institutional racism and misogyny in the brigade.

It's one of the recommendations made by the review which spoke to more than two thousand staff members.

The report by former prosecutor Nazir Afzal, found shocking evidence of racist, homophobic and misogynistic bullying which left a “clear trail of psychological harm”.

Speaking at a meeting of the London Assembly fire, resilience and emergency planning committee on Tuesday morning, London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe confirmed work would “start immediately” to implement the report’s recommendations.

Mr Roe said:

“We have begun the procurement of body-worn cameras. We will be the first service in the country to issue body-worn cameras to our crews, both to protect them but also to ensure public safety and reassurance. Those are immediate changes, and that change has started now.”

In one testimony featured in the report, an anonymous female firefighter said she tells her female friends “not to let male firefighters in the house” as they “go through women’s drawers looking for underwear and sex toys”. The firefighter said that cameras were the “only way” to stop such behaviour.

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe also said a five year case review is also underway looking back at historic cases to “sense check all of those decisions that got made”. Anyone still working for the service who does not meet the new standards will lose their job.

“If we still have people in the workforce – regardless of whether they’ve been through a process or not – who do not meet newly framed standards around gross misconduct, then they will be dismissed.”

He added that, unlike in the Metropolitan Police, there are no “significant legal barriers” to dismissing members of staff that have been found to have committed misconduct.

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