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Would you wear a body cam at work? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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If body cams get cheaper and cheaper, companies might start asking more people to wear them while working.

E.g.: https://coloradosun.com/2024/07/31/youth-corrections-audio-surveillance/

I could see this for ~~doctors~~, at restaurants, ~~stores,~~, etc... eventually.

Are you ready to wear one?

EDIT TO ADD: A few people said this wouldn't ever make sense for doctors (privacy laws) or for fixed locations (stores). I should have thought of that.

But what about Uber / bus drivers, or repair people who go into homes? I can imagine a large corporation thinking a cam is a good idea, for their own CYA (not for the customers' or the employees').

Also I don't like this idea either, to be clear. I was mostly playing devil's advocate here to see what you all think. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Pretty much what I expected, tbh

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Where I work; the public facing staff, security and customer service roles, are now offered to wear one at the start of their shift. They all want to use one.

These workers face abuse - physical assault, threats, harassment - from members of the public.

What has been found is that when they turn the body worn camera on, the other person tends to stop the abuse or at least de-escalates somewhat. (Prior to having body worn cameras available, some of these staff had tried to use their phone to film when in an incident, but it almost always triggered an immediate violent response - one staff had their phone taken and smashed, another was hit in the face)

There has been a decrease in mental health injury claims since using these. My own talks with these staff are that they feel safer, and had asked their employer to procure more body worn cameras as there wasn’t enough for all the staff.

The staff are not required to have them constantly on, they press a button to switch it on when an aggressive situation is forming or they believe they are in danger.