Case Studies

Agency wears cameras

by Mark Rowe

After a six-month trial, Environment Agency enforcement teams in the East Midlands are using Body Worn Cameras. The trial, which was commissioned after a growing number of abusive incidents during site inspections to waste sites, found that wearing Body Worn Cameras helped to reduce anti-social behaviour, assaults and threats against Agency staff.

EA officers around the region will now be equipped with Edesix VideoBadges on visits. The cameras will also be used by fisheries enforcement officers during their routine activities. Footage captured on a body-cam in the North-East was recently used by the Agency for the first time to convict an offender. The defendant pleaded ‘guilty’ of wilfully obstructing the officers in the execution of their duty and using abusive behaviour towards two officers when he knew they had video evidence.

Pete Haslock, Enforcement Team Leader for the Environment Agency in the East Midlands, described safety of staff as paramount. He said: “They are well trained in dealing with hostile situations and we take any threat against them very seriously. Our preference is to prevent hostility in the first place and wearing the cameras can prevent threatening situations from escalating. We want to get on with our jobs without the threat of violence and the cameras will help to protect staff and bring obstructive individuals to justice. Officers will switch on the cameras if and when they enter a hostile situation or where hostility may be anticipated. That could be a site where they have experienced aggressive behaviour in the past or an unknown quantity, such as on a remote river bank.”

Richie McBride, managing director of Edesix, added: “This is another great example of a new market which can utilise Body Worn Cameras to improve security and functionality.”

About Edesix

Recently acquired by US-based security firm Vigilant Solutions, Edesix has won contracts with the likes of UK prisons, Scotrail and South Australian Police, and was named in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table. The firm has direct sales and international partners, to the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, the Middle East and Australasia. Visit www.edesix.com.

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