Since spring, the Citizens’ and Public Order Office of the City of Duisburg has been one of the first municipal authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia to test the NetCo body cam as part of a three-and-a-half-month pilot project. Twenty cameras are in use every day, operated by employees of the municipal Citizens’ and Public Order Office from the special field service and traffic monitoring departments. Previously, a change in the legal basis by the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament had made the use of cameras possible, stating that not only police officers, but now also employees of municipal regulatory authorities may be equipped with body cameras. ## Why did the city of Duisburg decide to use body cameras?
There are currently 51 traffic surveillance officers and 65 municipal field service employees. In 2021 and early 2022, there were a total of 46 attacks or insults against staff. These included passive resistance as well as physical attacks. All incidents were reported to the police. The body cam is intended to help counteract these attacks. ## What is the aim of using body cams? Thorsten Bleckmann, head of the municipal field service, hopes that the body cams will have a “preventive effect”. The camera recordings are also intended to serve as evidence for criminal prosecution if an incident occurs. The emergency services in the city of Duisburg hope that this will lead to more de-escalation and transparency, as well as greater trust in the work of the public order office on the part of citizens. The cameras will be clearly visible on the uniforms of the emergency services and are intended to de-escalate potentially critical situations from the outset. Depending on the behaviour of the other party, the emergency services personnel can refer to the body cam in a second de-escalation stage and switch on the body cam display, in which the troublemaker can see themselves. Only if these two measures fail to calm the situation down will the body cam recording actually start. Only videos that are forwarded to the public prosecutor’s office due to an assault will be stored for a longer period of time. All other recordings are not viewed and are deleted after a short time. ## What happens after the pilot project?
In late summer 2022, the use of body cameras in the city of Duisburg will be evaluated. The plan is to use body cameras on a permanent basis in order to invest in the safety of staff. The feedback that has already been published on social media and can also be read in various newspaper articles is already consistently positive. According to the public order office, there have been no attacks on employees since the body cameras were introduced. Sören Link, the mayor of the city of Duisburg, has already publicly stated that the body camera should become “personal protective equipment for the uniformed forces of the civil and public order office” if the results continue to be so positive after the test phase has ended. He also said on the “Mein Krefeld” website: “Our experience and that of other cities shows that body cams work.” 