Bodycam Accidentally Left Recording Captures Four Damning Hours Inside Police Station

Absolute nightmare for Norfolk Police after they confiscated a bodycam belonging to a protester and took it to the police station… not realising it was still recording.

Officers had taken the bodycam from Gemma Barnes, 36, after she went to Bethel Street Police Station to deliver a petition calling for a man to be charged for killing a pigeon.

Things got a bit heated and Gemma was arrested and her bodycam confiscated, which ended up catching all kinds of scandalous comments from Norfolk Police officers back at the station:

Among the comments caught on film:

• One female police officer saying: ‘I illegally stop, search IC3 (black) females and then I arrest them.’

• Officers laughing while watching footage of Gemma’s arrest, with a female voice saying she ‘asked for it’.

• Officers openly discussing paying for sex/sex workers at a “Chinese well-being place” and receiving “happy endings.”

• Calling Gemma a “dirty critter” and a “f*ing waste of space.”

• A Police Sergeant stating he had better get his “spin-the-wheel machine” out while preparing his official witness statement.

Apparently there was some transphobia chucked in there as well.

Gemma was given her bodycam back after 11 months and fully expected it to be wiped, but when she plugged it in, she found 4+ hours of footage of Norfolk Police officers talking amongst themselves.

Gemma said: “As I continued to watch the footage, I realised the magnitude of what they were saying. The transphobia, racism, brothels, picking me up with false charges.

“I was outraged; to say it was unprofessional is an understatement. It is a damning indictment of the environment in policing – it was appalling.”

The Independent Office of Police Conduct is now reviewing the footage, but Norfolk Constabulary has not announced any immediate staff suspensions. Which is pretty surprising especially considering that one officer’s admission that she arrests black females for fun, even if it was meant to be a joke.

As for Gemma, she had a charge of public nuisance against her dropped, and was acquitted at Norfolk Magistrates for a Section 5 public order offence and is now suing Norfolk Police for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and trespass to goods.

To be fair, is any of this actually surprising? Wasn’t that long ago we had secret recordings of Met Police officers at the pub saying ‘immigrants should be shot’.