To increase the safety of customer service representatives and all passengers, NetCo body cameras have been in use at Trans Regio’s Mittelrheinbahn since August 2021. A total of five employees wear bright yellow safety vests with small cameras attached to them on the route between Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne after 7 p.m. The body-cams are activated whenever deemed necessary in critical situations. ## Decision to use body-cams following increase in assaults The reason for introducing body-cams was an evaluation of daily reports from employees, which revealed a sharp increase in assaults and critical incidents. In addition, the personal sense of safety of each passenger is important when it comes to whether and to what extent public transport is used, and is therefore a central concern for many public transport companies. ## Pilot project with obstacles The project was originally launched in 2019, but was suspended due to the pandemic before being revived in the summer of 2021. Trans Regio is thus one of the first transport companies in Germany to use body cameras for employee and passenger protection. In previous applications, body cameras have only been used by police forces and security services. However, it was a long road to the start of the project, as both the Rhineland-Palatinate State Data Protection Authority and the North Rhine-Westphalia State Data Protection Authority had to give their approval.
Data protection is a priority Compliance with the GDPR was a top priority both before and during the project. The works council and all responsible data protection officers of the company (Trans Regio) and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate are involved in all processes and are in constant communication.
Use cases are clearly regulated The customer service representatives who agreed to test the use of body cameras were first given extensive training in how to use the small cameras. During inspections, the body camera is in standby mode by default. In critical situations, it is activated as needed with a tap on the touchscreen. The passenger can then see themselves in the mirror function on the body camera display. However, the camera does not start recording until the customer service representatives press the record button and signal to the passenger that they are starting to record. The recorded data is only read out and permanently stored if the federal police deem the footage to be relevant for criminal investigations. For example, a recording from 2019 was requested by the Cologne federal police. It concerned a mass brawl on a MittelrheinBahn train. Thanks to the recordings, the investigating authorities were able to find the perpetrators.
Initial conclusion: Trans Regio accompanied the introduction of body-cams with a poster campaign with the slogan “Because three eyes see more” and had been drawing attention to the project on trains for some time, raising awareness among passengers. Initial feedback showed that both employees and passengers feel safer and are more mindful of their behaviour thanks to the body cameras.
