Police photographers' jobs under threat
More than 100 police photographers have been told they could face the sack as the Metropolitan Police considers drastically reducing its Photographic Branch
Current procedural practice is based on the belief that police photographers play a vital role in gathering and presenting evidence, but the Metropolitan Police is said to be considering training regular officers to photograph crime scenes instead. ‘Only two smaller teams [of the Photographic Branch] would be kept,’ a source close to the Metropolitan Police Photographic Branch tells BJP. ‘One to process all fingerprints in the labs, and the other one for major incidents like bombings.’
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crimes division says: ‘We are currently reviewing how we best meet the Met requirement for professional photography. As part of this we are looking at how we can professionally develop our dedicated photography staff. We have no plans to disband these specialist capabilities and we are actually looking at how we can enhance their role further. All photography staff will continue to work to the head of profession who is the director of Forensic Services.’
The Metropolitan Police Photographic Branch was created 1903. Located in south London, the branch holds the images of more than 100 years of London crime scenes.
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