What happens when it matters – and the camera is still off? In the podcast with Oliver Pohl (https://exit-mentor.de/), our Dr.-Ing. Matthias Hagner talks about the future of body cameras and why technology alone is not enough.
Anyone who wears a body cam knows the situation: things get loud, the situation escalates – and only then do you realise that the camera isn’t even running yet. This is precisely the problem that we at NetCo have been working on for years. Because even the best recording is useless if it starts too late.
The complete podcast episode ## Pre-recording is good – automatic activation is better Our body cameras already offer a pre-recording function: the last few minutes are saved in the background and are available as soon as recording is started manually. This closes the gap to a certain extent. But the real progress lies elsewhere.
We are working on making the camera itself recognise when it is needed. Loud voices, aggressive gestures, hectic movements – these are all signals that an intelligently equipped body cam can respond to. Back in 2020, we presented a working prototype at the GPEC in Leipzig that recognises aggressive behaviour and automatically starts recording. That was long before the current AI hype began – and it wasn’t a show effect, but a response to a real problem encountered in everyday operations. ## AI at NetCo: a tool, not a buzzword In the podcast, Matthias says something that sums up our attitude well: “Many people use AI to appear modern – not us. We are interested in practical solutions to real problems.”
For us, AI is not an end in itself. We use it where it brings concrete benefits: for automatic activation, for group activation – when an incident commander starts his camera and his colleagues’ cameras automatically start recording as well – or for evaluating large amounts of data. AI helps to recognise patterns, mark anomalies and jump to the relevant parts of a recording more quickly. But in the end, it is always a human being who makes the final decision.
Technology needs a legal framework What is technically possible is not permitted everywhere – and that is a good thing. The discussion highlights how differently the world deals with the issue of body cameras. In the USA, continuous recording is common, in some cases explicitly for the protection of the other party. In parts of Asia, permanent camera recordings are part of everyday life. In Germany and Europe, stricter data protection rules apply.
This poses special challenges for the introduction of body camera programmes: Who is responsible? Who is allowed to access the recordings? What rights do the people being recorded have? For a camera to automatically recognise what is happening around it, it would have to constantly listen and watch – and that is precisely what is a sensitive issue in terms of data protection law in Europe. We take this consideration seriously and develop our solutions so that they work within the applicable framework.
Data sovereignty: your data stays with you One question we are regularly asked is: where do the recordings end up? At NetCo, the customer has the choice. Many organisations, especially police authorities, want complete control: camera in the docking station, transmission via cable, data remains in their own network – without an internet connection.
For decentralised deployment scenarios, we offer encrypted mobile transmission – either to the customer’s server or to our infrastructure. Our servers are located in Germany and are not operated by American cloud providers. For many customers in the public sector, this is a decisive factor.