In the Firing LineIt is a sad indictment of the world we live in that not a week goes by without some news report story regarding attacks on the emergency services in the course of their duties. A case in point are firefighters who often find themselves lured to incidents, where fires have been set deliberately, just so they can ambushed with stones and bottles, in some of the worst cases scaffolding poles have been thrown through windscreens of fire engines. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in the UK reports that there are an estimated 40 attacks on fire crews every week – see www.fbu.org.uk/campaigns/attacks/index.php. This obviously has the potential to cause serious injury to the crews and damage to fire appliances. The severity and number of attacks has led to a search for new measures to protect firefighters. Increasingly, mobile, multi-camera, digital recorders are being trialled in specially marked fire engines in the hope that they can act both as a deterrent and, by connection to a panic button, help to gather vital evidence of specific events to prosecute offenders. I for one will be watching with interest to see how this technology, already used extensively in buses and trains, is able to make a difference in this new testing environment and if brigades using such systems see any change in the severity or number of attacks.
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