Parking attendants and animal control staff at the Invercargill City Council have begun wearing body cameras on the job, as part of a health and safety trial to reduce the risk to those staff who come into contact with disgruntled members of the public.

At a Risk and Assurance committee yesterday (September 29), people and capability manager Gary Andrews said the council had recently reported a number of incidents of "bad behaviour" from the public towards council staff, which prompted them to begin the trial.

"We have had a couple of incidents recently where body cams would have de-escalated or at least protected a couple of our employees from some pretty bad behaviour from members of the public," he said.

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He said council staff were on board with the idea and had not raised any concerns about a potential breach of privacy.

"They're fully supportive of it and feel it that it's something that would help to protect them."

"[Body cameras] is something that's been done by about 30 other councils across New Zealand," he added. 

Mr Andrews said once the trial is completed the council would consider purchasing another ten cameras for staff in vulnerable, front line positions to wear. 

However, a formal evaluation of the trial will take place first to determine if the body cameras are implemented as a permanent fixture, he said. 

ICC Environmental Services Manager Betty Holden-Tzanoudakis told The Southland App there had been 18 recorded incidents of poor behaviour from members of the public towards staff between July 2019 and July 2020.

"Our staff are experienced and professional, and the nature of their work means they are often needing to deal with high-tension situations. Some examples of what might be considered “poor behaviour” may not have been formally reported because they weren’t considered to be significant, however these situations have the potential to escalate," she said.

ICC Environmental Services Manager Betty Holden-Tzanoudakis with the body camera being trialled by compliance and animal services staff. PHOTO: Invercargill City Council

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Part of the reason for the use of body cameras was to try and discourage that kind of behaviour before it even began.

"There have been events where officers have nearly been run over, have been verbally abused, or where they’ve been subject to intimidating or threatening behaviour from members of the public," she said. "Our staff will 'trial' the camera we currently have on site to make sure that it is suitable for our needs and works with our IT systems, and if successful, we will seek to purchase another seven cameras so that all of our compliance and animal services staff will be able to wear them."

Staff would undergo full training before the cameras were rolled out for day-to-day use. It was anticipated was likely to be in November.