On 25 May 2026 the Metropolitan Police published a revised policy committing to release "even more" body-worn video footage where it can improve transparency and trust in policing. Translation: a press release. Not a reform plan. Not a new investigative capability. A communications strategy dressed up as accountability.

Londoners are entitled to ask the only question that matters: will this policy result in more criminals being caught and convicted? The answer, plainly, is no.

The Met's Actual Problem

Public trust in the Met has not collapsed because footage is being held back. It has collapsed because:

  • Charge rates for theft are around 5 percent.
  • Shoplifters openly loot stores while officers admit they cannot attend.
  • Phone theft has become an industrial-scale racket on London streets.
  • Knife crime victims wait while their attackers walk free on bail.
  • Senior officers spend more time apologising for policing than directing it.

None of those problems is solved by releasing more video. Releasing more video, sometimes, is good. But it is to policing what releasing a clip is to football. It tells you what happened, not whether you can stop it happening again.

Trust Is Earned by Catching Criminals

Every credible piece of polling on policing finds the same thing: the public want officers visible on the streets and offenders going through the courts. They are not asking for a YouTube channel. They are asking for a working force.

The Met has spent years on internal reviews, "listening exercises", culture overhauls and rebranded units. Meanwhile, ordinary Londoners watch as the same handful of repeat offenders strip shops, snatch phones and intimidate their neighbours with statistical impunity.

Body-Worn Video Is a Tool, Not a Strategy

Body-worn cameras have real value. They protect honest officers from false complaints. They protect honest civilians from bad ones. They are evidence in court. Used properly they are a quiet, unglamorous part of good policing.

But the policy announced on 25 May does not unlock more prosecutions. It does not free up officer time. It does not get more constables onto the streets in Croydon, Hackney or Westminster. It exists because the Met needs to look like it is doing something. That is not the same as doing something.

What Reform UK Would Do

Reform UK believes the only credible policing reform is operational. Get the cops out of the back office and into the boroughs. Slash internal-affairs bureaucracy. End the "non-crime hate incident" record-keeping that diverts officers from real crime. Reinstate proper consequences for repeat shoplifters and phone thieves so London's high streets are no longer free-for-alls.

We would also require every borough commander to publish weekly charge rates by offence type, so the public can hold the Met to account in numbers rather than press releases. Transparency about footage is fine. Transparency about results is what changes behaviour.

Releasing more video without releasing more criminals into the dock is exactly the kind of policing-by-press-release that lost the Met its credibility in the first place. Londoners deserve better. So do the officers stuck inside the system.