I know Metrolink loco’s have inward facing cameras - any other railroads doing this and what are your thoughts on this?
Yes other railroads are contemplating the installation, do I like it ?? no.
Can I or Union do anything about it ??? no
People are recorded at work if they like it or not, some examples are toll takers, bank tellers, police cars, Super market checkouts, factory workers etc etc etc.
Its upto union to negotiate restrictions and abuse penalties, so if engineer X is picking his nose or scratching his privates , he will not end up on youtube or as company screensaver.
I think the best way to do it is like the airlines do CVRs. A recording device that always has the last 20 minutes or the last hour, that stops automatically at an impact. That way there is a device that can be removed and opened by the NTSB in the event of an accident, but otherwise creates no permanent record and is not used for routine supervisory review.
I’d opine that firmly establishing that the camera is there strictly for incident review, and not for job performance review, would do wonders for its acceptance.
A key factor here is the “expectation of privacy.” Prior to the inception of such devices, what happened in the cab stayed in the cab, be it comments about management, dirty jokes, or flatulence contests. Any action to restrict cameras would likely include such an argument.
I’m sure there are hundreds of actions in cabs each day that someone in management would find distasteful, but which don’t compromise the safe, efficient operation of the equipment. If one of those actions did cause an incident, a recording of the last 20 minutes or so would more than likely be more than sufficient to establish that fact.
I think Larry’s observation is spot on. Those who are doing their jobs to the best of their ability should have nothing to fear if the cameras were only used for incident/accident review.
Perhaps they should be limited to that use by federal law. I’m sure there are many managers who would take advantage of them if they thought they could get away with it.
I’ve been in aviation for thirty years. Cockpit voice recorders, flight data recorders and the like have only been used in investigations of incidents and accidents. That’s the proper way to use them. Reviewing them to get information used to fire someone is unethical at the least.
I am not going to get into an argument over privacy issues in the work place. I agree with those who have suggested the cameras should be similar to the recorders on aircraft where only the last 20-30 minutes of data are preserved.
Some of the newer locomotives have event recorders which record many variables one of which might include speed, and so far I haven’t heard any complaints about invaisions of the engine crews’ privacy.
They’re in many the newer vehicles, too.
I’d opine that there is a big difference between event recorders and “cockpit” recorders. It’s possible to maintain an appropriate speed and other proper train handling parameters while telling jokes about the trainmaster’s (name a relation here).
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Being a former airline pilot, I’d also like to make one more note about cockpit voice recorders. If absolutely necessary, they CAN be erased by the pilots (although it’s this screwy procedure involving holding down the button and some other buttons, etc most would probably mess it up haha).