MORE than 300 faults with Police Scotland’s body-worn cameras have been logged in the past three years.

The cameras were initially trialled in Aberdeen and then rolled out across Moray and Aberdeenshire in 2012.

Data obtained by BBC Scotland found that over a three-year period the number of faults reported with the system doubled.

Police Scotland told the broadcaster most problems had been with the force’s own computers, not the cameras themselves.

Officers have logged 302 faults in the force’s IT portal since 2013, according to information obtained by the BBC.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: “There’s been in the region of 300 faults reported, but to give you some context around that, let’s take Queen Street station alone in Aberdeen in the north-east.

“Body-worn cameras have been deployed there in excess of 200,000 times over the period of the trial so the numbers are a tiny percentage of that, and I think what’s more important are the benefits.

“We’ve heard from the people of Aberdeen and how positive they are about it, including officer safety, a reduction in police officers having to go to court and perhaps most importantly as a result of that a reduction in the number of victims that have to attend at court to give evidence.”

He said that the force is currently consulting about what the future of policing in Scotland should look like in the next decade, which they are calling policing 2026.

If they were to consider the use of body-worn cameras for potential development they would take into account the lessons learned in the north-east, he said.

Mr Williams said the force has a “transformational budget” to change the organisation and move it forward, allowing them to consider the cost benefits of something like body-worn video.

Andrea MacDonald, chairwoman of the Scottish Police Federation, said they were concerned the force does not have the infrastructure to support the cameras.

She said: “What we’re concerned about is the cost in the current financial climate for the force which as you know is very dire and we’re also concerned that our IT infrastructure is creaking and worried that it would not be able to cope with body-worn cameras at the present time.”