An irate visitor at the counter, an escalating dispute hearing at the social services office, an aggressive tone during an appointment at the public order office: for staff who deal directly with the public, verbal and sometimes physical aggression has long been part of daily work. A study commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, conducted by the German Research Institute for Public Administration in Speyer, was the first to document this at scale with real numbers: public order offices reported 314 incidents of violence per 1,000 employees, and citizens’ registration offices 189 – both with an increase of around 98 percent over the comparison period. On top of that comes a high number of unreported cases: only about 30 percent of incidents are ever reported at all.
Why conventional measures alone often aren’t enough
Many public authorities rely on protective screens or security staff at reception. Both have their place, but they have limits: security staff can’t be everywhere at once, especially in smaller branch offices or consultation rooms without a direct line of sight to reception. What’s often missing in practice is a discreet yet reliable way for employees themselves to get help quickly and specifically in an emergency, without escalating the situation at the counter.
What a modern system like the ACTIGY® Button can do
This is exactly where ACTIGY® comes in – with three features that set it apart from conventional solutions. First, installation: the ACTIGY® Button runs on Power over Ethernet, with no special wiring required – a counter or consultation room can be equipped within minutes, not after weeks of construction planning.
Second, alerting: unlike a plain “silent alarm,” the Button’s press-pattern recognition allows graduated responses from a single device. A simple press can bring a colleague into the room to help de-escalate a tense conversation. A different, clearly defined press pattern immediately triggers an alert to security. De-escalate first, escalate immediately when it truly matters – something a single, hard-wired panic button simply can’t do.
Even for the smallest local administration: security without a large upfront investment
Not every public authority is a large county administration office with its own IT department. That’s why ACTIGY® is also available as a cloud solution for smaller municipal and town administrations: Aspiria operates the server in its own private cloud per customer, so there’s no need for dedicated server hardware or IT staff. Entry starts at around €22 net per month – affordable even for a single small municipal office with just a few counters, without giving up the same security functionality a larger municipality gets from its own on-premise installation.
Conclusion
Violence during public counter service is not a marginal phenomenon – for staff at registration and public order offices, it is a real occupational risk, and likely more common than reported figures suggest. A system like ACTIGY® can be installed in minutes, responds in graduated steps rather than rigidly in an emergency, and, thanks to the cloud option, remains accessible even for smaller administrations without a large upfront investment.
Want to find out how ACTIGY® could work for your organization? Get in touch with us or learn more about the technical details of the Button and server.
Source: Bühren, Kuche, Piesker, Steffens, Steffens, Tritsch, Uhlig, Ziekow: “Violence Against Public Sector Employees” (Gewalt gegen Beschäftigte im öffentlichen Dienst), German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer, commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, August 2022.