A street cleaner who started wearing his own body worn camera says he’s been threatened with the sack unless he takes it off.
Terry Gullen started wearing the camera as a precaution against being assaulted when working in the city centre in the early hours of the morning.
In 2021, fellow street cleaner Darren Hoad was left seriously injured after being attacked by a teenage girl in Pavilion Gardens.
Mr Gullen has provided Brighton and Hove News with a risk assessment carried out in the wake of that attack which stated street cleaners would be given body worn cameras – but none have ever been supplied.
Now, he’s been told he has to stop wearing his for data protection reasons – even though the council has issued them to other workers such as traffic wardens.
Mr Gullen said: “I was called in by my manager and he’s told me that I have to take off my camera or it would be a disciplinary offence.
“It’s because of data protection. If members of the public wanted to see the footage, we would have to supply it.
“I only recorded when I think I am going to be attacked, and the footage goes straight to the police. They’ve advised me to wear it.
“I have only ever needed to use it a few times when I have been attacked in the street at work.
“When I have called the police, every time the police ask for evidence of me being attacked and I have showed them. The police say it’s lucky I had evidence.
“There’s other members of staff who are wearing bodycams and I have asked them if they have been pulled up about it, but they haven’t.
“We are frontline workers and we start at 5 in the morning, esepcially at the weekend, there are loads of aggressive drunk people about.
“I’m wearing the camera for my safey and other people’s safety and I have told them this and they’re not listening.”
Mr Gullen, who has worked for Cityclean, the council’s waste management service, for nine years, said he had been wearing the camera for about a year.
He said as well as random attacks from members of the public, he was also wary of being approached by a man who had been given a restraining order in connection with his partner.
A council spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual cases.
“As a responsible employer, we carry out risk assessments and put in place appropriate measures for staff who could be at risk from members of the public. For example, all our street cleaners have two-way radios with emergency alarms which are closely monitored.
“Body worn cameras do have their place, but we also have to balance their use as a safety and evidence gathering device against the need to protect the privacy of colleagues and residents.
“Staff in some enforcement roles where there is a higher risk and a need to gather evidence do have access to body worn cameras, but our street cleaning staff are not issued with them.
“We take the safety and wellbeing of all our staff incredibly seriously and suitable measures are in place across the council to ensure our staff are safe while at work.
“This includes our hard-working street cleaners who play such a vital role in keeping our city looking its best.”
The council does not care about their workers or safety of their workers .
The manager’s just pick on their workers
Just poor management
You can reported in A public place !!!
Good on your for bring this to people Attention.
It’s not right to Bully Staff and to video them working so you can show that they have done their work. Surely you can’t do that without their permission. So how wearing a body camera any different..
As your workers work front line being Abused by the public and your sitting in your offices all safe..
Hmm. There is clear evidence of this particular individual not feeling safe at his workplace. His reasoning for wanting a body-worn camera, that only records manually, is a valid one, having been attacked previously as stated in this article. I note most of us carry this technology with us 95% of the time in the form of smartphones anyway.
There is a clear legal duty on employers to ensure that employees are kept safe at the workplace. The public space can be dangerous, and it’s not unusual to have recording devices in these public spaces as a preventative deterrent and legal protection, such as dashcams, video doorbells, and CCTV.
Rather than an aggressive stance of going down a disciplinary route, and risking legal recourse, maybe this should trigger a review of how workers on a route are kept safe, such as implementing cameras on the vehicles, or providing company-issued cameras under policy, for example.
so when does the council begin the ban on dashcams ??
There is no data protection issue. People are free to photography and video in public spaces.
Private spaces may have their own ‘house rules’ …