School Crossing Patrols to be Given Mobile Video Cameras
- Mobile cameras to be worn by school crossing patrol staff
- Cameras should help to deter those who abuse staff and ignore patrols
- Footage of people ignoring patrols or being abusive will be passed to the police
All Bedford Borough Council school crossing patrols have been given cameras to protect their safety and that of the children they help cross the road.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of incidents where drivers or others have shouted abuse at school crossing patrol officers. In addition, a small minority of drivers are continuing to ignore school crossing patrols and speeding past, putting the lives of children and the patrol officers at risk. On average, there is at least one of these incidents every month.
Therefore, the Council has taken action to protect children and their school crossing patrol staff.
Lib Dem Councillor Charles Royden, Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Transport, said: "It is absolutely shocking that some drivers think it is acceptable to ignore the patrols or stop only to shout abuse at our officers who are simply helping our children cross the road safely.
"The majority of our officers work alone and are out in all weathers, helping our young people get to and from school and it is fair and right that we do all we can to provide them with a safe working environment.
"We hope the cameras will act as a deterrent and make this small minority of people think twice about their actions. However, if people continue to act in this aggressive and unacceptable manner then we will pass the footage on to the Police."
The school crossing patrol service celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2013 and along with a police officer in uniform and a highways agency traffic officer are the only people that a motorist must stop for when directed to do so.
Bedford Borough Council values its school crossing patrols extremely highly, and was praised last year by the Living Streets charity for supporting its campaign for crossing patrol staff to be protected in the face of the unprecedented financial pressures for local authorities. The Borough currently has 21 School Crossing Patrols on 18 sites.
The cameras were issued to all School Crossing Patrols for the start of the new term on the week commencing 21st April 2014.
The video recordings are encrypted and will only be initially viewed by nominated council officers to aid initial investigations in to any reported incident. The video needs specialist software to be viewed and will be overwritten after eight hours. Because the footage on the camera needs specialist software to be viewed if they are lost or stolen then no one else will be able to access the videos.