The Full Form of BASE is Behavioral Approach to Safety Enhancement.

His mission? Spot workers who are violating the site’s safety rules and ensure they are called out and penalized. Often described by many names (some unprintable), this enforcer is most often known as the safety “cop.”

In the workers’ eyes, he takes on the characteristics of Barney Fife of TV’s classic Andy Griffith Show. He arrogantly puffs out his chest as he steps into a situation, never noticing that those he’s hoping to correct see him as a fool. His heart is in the right place, and his objectives are sound, but his law-and-order approach makes him ineffective. The workers who he sets out to protect? They suffer the most, because when they ignore his dictates, they put themselves in hazardous situations.

The approach of “I’m going to catch you doing bad things, and I’ll punish you for them” is far too prevalent on construction sites. Instead of enhancing worker safety and reducing the cost of incidents, it creates a gap of resentment between the owner and the workers.