Why Does A Body Cam With Front Dis­play Offer A Bet­ter Protection?

More than two-thirds of public sec­tor employees (67 per­cent) have been insul­ted, abu­sed, threa­ten­ed or atta­cked while at work in the last two years. Fif­ty-seven per­cent of tho­se sur­vey­ed in a stu­dy by the Ger­man Fede­ra­ti­on of Trade Uni­ons said that vio­lence had increased significantly. 

Regard­less of whe­ther they are rail­road employees or employees of public offices, poli­ce, res­cue and public order ser­vices — assaults on the­se occu­pa­tio­nal groups have ste­adi­ly increased in recent years and are recor­ding a dra­stic rise in the cour­se of the ongo­ing pandemic.

Par­ti­cu­lar­ly in public trans­port, staff are curr­ent­ly expo­sed to aggres­si­ve hosti­li­ty from pas­sen­gers as a result of the 3G detec­tion checks. 

Public Trans­port: Employee Pro­tec­tion Is The Topic Of The Day 

In the mean­ti­me, some pio­nee­ring com­pa­nies in public trans­port are using body cams to pro­tect their employees. And with suc­cess! The came­ras are pri­ma­ri­ly used to de-esca­la­te con­flict situa­tions. They are the­r­e­fo­re used by the ope­ra­tor as a pre­ven­ti­ve mea­su­re to inter­cept aggres­si­on and pre­vent vio­lent crime. For this to suc­ceed, one fac­tor in par­ti­cu­lar plays a cen­tral role: the front display. 

The Net­Co Body Cam — De-Escala­ti­on Takes Cen­ter Stage 

The lar­ge front dis­play on the Net­Co Body Cam has two func­tions: On the one hand, it sup­ports the wea­rer in going through the escala­ti­on stages (pre­sence with body cam, indi­ca­ti­on of immi­nent recor­ding, acti­va­ti­on of the dis­play) befo­re a recor­ding is even made, sin­ce the came­ra and the poten­ti­al­ly immi­nent recor­ding are cle­ar­ly pre­sent. On the other hand, the film­ed per­son sees hims­elf through the mir­ror func­tion in the dis­play. As a result, the per­son being film­ed is direct­ly con­fron­ted with his/her own beha­vi­or. Swit­ching on the mir­ror func­tion (wit­hout recor­ding) is often suf­fi­ci­ent to de-esca­la­te a poten­ti­al­ly dan­ge­rous situa­ti­on. This ensu­res that the con­flict situa­ti­on does not beco­me a dan­ger eit­her for the body cam wea­rer or for unin­vol­ved third parties. 

eutsche Bahn Mitarbeiter mit NetCo Body-Cam

Front Dis­play — 50% De-Escala­ti­on By Tur­ning On The Body Cam 

The con­cept “body cam with dis­play” is a valuable mea­su­re for many public trans­port com­pa­nies to pre­vent dan­gers on the plat­form or insi­de the trains. Wie­ner Lini­en has alre­a­dy been using the came­ras with front dis­play sin­ce 2018. In most cases, the body cams are used to alert dog owners to the use of a muz­zle, to pre­vent smo­king on the plat­form or dri­ving on the plat­form. The ser­vice employees of Wie­ner Lie­nen descri­be that espe­ci­al­ly the front dis­play on the body cam is very hel­pful in their dai­ly work. They con­firm that the peo­p­le film­ed are deter­red by the body cam recor­ding — for fear of fur­ther legal action such as being repor­ted to the police.

Deut­sche Bahn has also been using the Net­Co body cams with front dis­play at Germany’s major train sta­ti­ons sin­ce 2017. The reason for this was that a lar­ge num­ber of employees were insul­ted or even atta­cked by pas­sen­gers. The came­ras help DB secu­ri­ty staff pro­tect them­sel­ves and docu­ment assaults in com­pli­ance with the law. 

The trans­port com­pa­ny Trans Regio has also purcha­sed the body came­ras for the trains of Rhein­mit­tel­Bahn becau­se the­re have been repea­ted con­fron­ta­ti­ons and assaults in the vehic­les, espe­ci­al­ly on the train staff. In addi­ti­on, the com­pa­ny is try­ing to coun­ter­act the issue of pro­per­ty dama­ge and van­da­lism by using the body cam, becau­se this results in high cos­ts every year. “Our goal is to ensu­re that pas­sen­gers and col­le­agues always feel safe and com­for­ta­ble on our trains,” says Ingo Pfund­stein, mana­ging direc­tor of Trans Regio Deut­sche Regio­nal­bahn GmbH. A total of five cus­to­mer ser­vice repre­sen­ta­ti­ves will be wea­ring high-visi­bi­li­ty ves­ts with the Net­Co body cam on the trains from 7 p.m. onwards. The con­clu­si­on so far is that “both employees and pas­sen­gers feel safer and behave dif­fer­ent­ly as a result of the body cams.” 

Con­clu­si­on:

Body cams with a visi­ble dis­play have a pro­ven de-escala­ting effect on atta­ckers and pro­tect not only their wea­rers but also unin­vol­ved third parties. 

 

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