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Here’s why plans to force body cameras on bailiffs won’t curb the cowboys

Inside Business: They were seen as a potential solution to police violence against African Americans in the US but researchers found little evidence of improvement

James Moore
Chief Business Commentator
Monday 22 July 2019 19:43 BST
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The Ministry of Justice wants all bailiffs to wear body cameras
The Ministry of Justice wants all bailiffs to wear body cameras

“Body-worn cameras to curb aggressive bailiffs,” declared the Ministry of Justice, hailing plans to make them compulsory as “decisive action” on behalf of vulnerable consumers.

Turning every bailiff into the star of their own low-rent version of Channel 5’s ghoulish Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away! should, so the theory goes, cause them to think twice before indulging in the sort of behaviour that’s left debt advice charities grappling with a blizzard of complaints.

As I previously wrote, Citizens Advice said it helped 40,000 people with almost 104,000 bailiff problems in the year to the end of March, a 16 per cent increase over the previous year.

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