As of: April 3, 2024, 7:11 p.m
By: Maximilian Kettenbach
Comments
Press
Split
After an increase in violent crimes, Deutsche Bahn is equipping its staff with body cameras. A pilot project is already showing initial success.
Berlin – These numbers were apparently too much of a bad thing. After attacks on railway employees have increased significantly in recent years, the railway will in future equip its staff on Deutsche Bahn regional trains with body cameras for safety reasons. This is what the head of DB Regio, Evelyn Palla, told
Bild am Sonntag
. “We want to enable our customer service representatives in local transport nationwide to wear a body camera,” says Palla.
“Our employees are the backbone of rail transport. “We have to protect them even more from attacks,” explained Palla. “Every attack against our employees is one too many.” In 2023, 1,328 DB employees were attacked in local transport.
Body cameras in DB trains – because violence is getting out of hand
The decision doesn't really come as a surprise. In December, the state chairman of the EVG railway union, Dirk Richter, said: “Our people are feeling the frustration of customers.” A respect campaign by EVG in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Transport is intended to raise awareness. Flyers, posters and information on social media are intended to draw attention to the problem.
The sharp increase in violent acts in 2022 was attributed, among other things, to the requirement to wear masks on trains during the corona pandemic. A large proportion of the incidents affected the approximately 5,000 conductors and customer advisors on regional trains. In spring 2023, DB Regio started a pilot project with body cameras for employees.
A DB security employee wears a bodycam on her vest at Nuremberg Central Station. © Nicolas Armer/dpa
Deutsche Bahn announces drastic changes to regional trains
These tests have shown that so-called body cameras help protect employees from physical attacks. “The employees who wore a body camera in our pilot projects have not experienced any physical attack since then,” a railway spokesman told the newspaper.
There are currently no current figures on attacks on railway employees for the entire past year. Particularly in regional transport, the number of passengers has increased noticeably, due, among other things, to the introduction of the Deutschlandticket. Deutsche Bahn's local transport fleet includes 4,500 regional trains and S-Bahn trains, which offer 22,000 train journeys every day and transport around 4.7 million travelers per day.
Recently, wave strikes by the GDL train drivers' union angered many train drivers. As a result, numerous DB trains came to a standstill. But there is also a threat of new work stoppages in public transport. (
afp, mke
)