Physical Security

Worker protection

by msecadm4921

Toward the end of April, a female CEO (Civil Enforcement Officer) who has worked for Bristol City Council’s parking enforcement team for two years faced one of her toughest challenges in her daily work. She had noticed a vehicle parked illegally in a disabled bay near Bristol city centre and while issuing a parking notice was aggressively confronted by the vehicle owner who got into his car and attempted to drive away; nearly injuring her in the process.

 

 

While taken aback by his actions, she was able to remain calm and attempted to continue with her job of completing the issue of the notice. What she then faced was a 20-minute tirade of abuse, offensive language and threatening gestures that resulted in police being called and the man being arrested.

 

However, the woman had received training from the Bristol parking enforcement team and had back up from the code5 service supplied by the UK mobile network and lone worker specialists SitexOrbis. code5 has been used by Bristol council and other authorities for a number of years and is a solution for lone workers who face increased risk during their normal working day.

 

On making the decision to follow through with the notice, despite the obvious threat to her own safety, she pressed the dedicated panic button on her ruggedised Sonim XP3 Sentinel mobile phone. Within seconds all audio was being recorded and she was discreetly connected to a SitexOrbis response team operator. The operator then remained on the line and began to initiate the pre-agreed emergency response procedure, set by Bristol City Council.

 

Within minutes the police were called who took control of the situation and finally arrested the man after discovering him in possession of several knives.

 

The quality of the audio captured between the Sonim device and the digital recorders hosted at the Alarm Receiving Centre of SitexOrbis were commended by the CEO and the police who, because of this, are confident of upgrading the severity of the offence and securing a conviction. The SitexOrbis operator also managed to ensure accurate notes and key details were added to the report that will form part of the evidence.

 

In this instance the training of the CEO combined with the Sonim equipment and code5 service ensured not only a rapid emergency response, but also the likelihood that this man will be convicted and possibly receive a custodial sentence, hopefully stopping him from posing a further threat to other civil workers and the public in general.

 

Bristol City Council is one of the first councils to assist their preferred network and SitexOrbis in trials of the Sonim product that is also being appraised by other parking enforcement bodies. 

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