Senior Hertfordshire firefighters set to be issued with body-worn cameras as attacks increase
Senior firefighters in Hertfordshire are set to be issued with body-worn cameras, as the number of attacks against officers increases.
The cameras will record the operational decisions made by incident commanders as they respond to calls across the county.
The footage will be shared with fire officers during operational debriefs and to share operational learning.
The roll-out of body-worn cameras was revealed during a meeting of the county council’s public health and community safety cabinet panel, on Monday (September 14), and came in response to a question from Cllr Beth Kelly (Labour, Hatfield North).
Fire appliances across Hertfordshire are already fitted with CCTV cameras.
Assistant chief fire officer Andy Hall said that the body-worn cameras were the “next evolution of that” and would now be issued to incident commanders.
Pointing to an increase in attacks on firefighters, he said the use of body-worn cameras was for safety, but he added that the footage would be used to assist with operational learning.
“We do use cameras on appliances,” Mr Hall said.
“We have CCTV on fire appliances, and we feed that information in. The body worn cameras are the next evolution of that.”
Mr Hall told councillors that the service’s operational debriefs had relied on contemporaneous notes made by crews.
But he said the use of the video footage would enable crews that had not attended the incident to “gain that really valuable operational learning as well”.
Following the meeting, executive member for public health and community safety Cllr Ajanta Hilton (Liberal Democrat, St Stephen’s) welcomed the roll-out of the cameras, in order to ensure firefighters felt safe.
She said that, ideally, there would be no need for the cameras, but that firefighter safety was paramount, adding that the camera footage would provide a record of conversations and situations, when required.
Despite suggesting that firefighters were among the most trusted of the services, she said that in high-risk, difficult situations there could be “trigger points”.
Cllr Hilton said that the use of body-worn cameras was to ensure there was a record and for firefighters “to feel a little bit more safe in those situations”.
She also acknowledged the role in operational debriefs, and suggested that in future the footage may even be able to be viewed by others remotely, by those who could give specialist advice or be “another pair of eyes”.