Cambridgeshire County Council/OCS - Body Cameras for Parking Enforcement

Case Study Background

Cambridgeshire County Council collaborates with OCS Group UK to ensure parking laws are enforced fairly and consistently across the county.

As one of the UK's leading facilities management companies, OCS have a wealth of experience and expertise to advise and guide their clients on every aspect of decriminalised parking.

Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) provided by OCS work on behalf of the council to issue fixed penalty notices to any vehicles contravening parking laws.

The Challenge

Civil Enforcement Officers across the UK are far too often the victims of verbal and physical attacks from aggravated public members, which makes theirs one of the most challenging frontline roles.

The British Parking Association (BPA) recently released a set of troubling statistics regarding abuse to CEOs that found:

• 84% reported frequency of verbal abuse once per month or more

• 20% reported frequency of physical abuse once per month or more

• 57% reported encountering difficulties in recruiting and/or retaining CEOs

• Officers evenly experienced verbal abuse across the UK

• Physical assaults were more common against CEOs in Northern England

• The police do not pursue 7/10 assaults

Both CCC and OCS wanted to implement a range of safety measures to ensure a safe working environment for their CEOs when undertaking their day-to-day roles, including personal protective devices. 

The Solution

CCC and OCS elected to equip their CEOs with WCCTV’s Body Worn Cameras to help deter aggression from public members, collect footage of issued tickets and help contest any false claims.

The Body Cameras allow officers to record video and audio evidence of any situations that occur, with all footage captured in HD quality with evidential time and date stamps.

WCCTV has also provided the partnership with access to cloud-based Evidence Management Software to manage all videos captured by the cameras.

The Result

Since deploying the cameras, there has been a marked decrease in incidents of violence, aggression and verbal attacks on CEOs across Cambridgeshire.

The cameras have proved to be incredibly effective in helping deter and de-escalate confrontations, and CEOs have indicated that they personally feel safer having the body cameras as part of their safety toolkit.

Where certain situations have escalated and violence has occurred, the video evidence taken from the cameras has been provided to the police to prosecute offenders.

Customer Quote

"The Body Worn Camera solution provided by WCCTV has proved to be an effective deterrent in the reduction of abuse and aggressive behaviour faced by our Civil Enforcement Officers.

Officers facing verbal threats and false allegations are reassured that recordings can be used in prosecutions where the front-facing screen provides the aggressor with an instant replay of his/her actions.

We've found the Evidence Management Software really helpful and easy to use. We're always able to quickly get hold of the videos we need to support any investigations.

There are several benefits of deploying WCCTV cameras, not least the comprehensive training and ongoing support from the team."

Related Links

WCCTV Body Worn Cameras

CCTV Solutions for Traffic Management