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Fingerprint scanners make for a safer, more efficient workplace
• WESTMINSTER City Council is introducing fingerprint scanning technology to a small number of its street-based staff who often work alone and for long periods, and often throughout the night (Hands off our fingerprints! September 5).
What the system does not do, and this has not been clear from press coverage, is store images of fingerprints of our staff. As soon as a member of staff swipes their finger across the
scanner that image is immediately converted into a unique number, rather like a PIN.
When the member of staff later swipes out, the system processes their recaptured image into a number and checks it against those stored.
There is no risk of this information being abused because the technology simply stores a number, which is no use to anyone else.
Many of our staff say they actually feel safer with this system because if anyone fails to sign in or out it is flagged up immediately. Given the vulnerability of such staff this is crucial.
Managers can also see in an instant who is working and where, and can draft in extra staff to fill gaps more easily.
Given the complexities of a large organisation like Westminster City Council, with multiple bases serving nearly 250,000 residents and a daily influx of more than a million people, the use of technology to improve working practices and ensure safety is essential.
Furthermore, in the event of a major emergency, such as a terrorist attack, Westminster would be one of the few local authorities to know exactly where their staff were and be better equipped to respond.
We are, of course, consulting with staff and unions and will not begin using the system in the street services team until this consultation is complete.
Dean Ingledew
Director of Community Protection
Westminster City Council
• THE news that Westminster Conservatives are installing fingerprint devices to keep track of council staff as they “clock in” and “clock out” is a sure sign that Big Brother is alive and well in City Hall.
It comes as no surprise that in a recent survey of over 1,200 council staff, only two in five (42 per cent) say that they trust the senior management team of the council and only half (52 per cent) trust the senior management team of their department to make the right decisions.
What do the Conservatives expect if staff are treated with such contempt?
What is the price of this massive staff dissatisfaction for Westminster residents?
We may have a low council tax, but if half the staff don’t trust their bosses, then what does this say about the quality of service which residents are getting from the council?
As ever, nothing of quality ever comes cheap and the price of a Conservative council and a low council tax for Westminster residents is a demotivated and alienated council workforce who don’t trust the people they work for.
Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg
Leader of the Labour Group
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