Hassled council staff don cameras

West Coast Regional Council office, Greymouth. File photo / Ross Setford

West Coast Regional Council staff have started wearing cameras when they make site visits to menacing members of the public.

Consents and compliance manager Jackie Adams revealed the system when asked yesterday by Cr Allan Birchfield if staff notified farmers and miners of impending visits.

"I have a report that they are arriving without forewarning," Cr Birchfield said.

Mr Adams said they had told a couple of people they would not be warned of compliance visits because health and safety issues were involved.

The council did not want to "give them time to get wound up", and threaten violence.

After the meeting, Mr Adams told the Greymouth Star he had spent $2000 on three cameras to be donned by staff members.

They were worn on properties where there had been issues in the past, noting that at times the police had been involved.

In one case, someone had threatened to spread a story that a staff member was a paedophile. They had been reported to the police, he said.

Generally, the council did announce its compliance visits, Mr Adams said.

The British police have just trialled the use of cameras and report an 88 per cent reduction in complaints filed against officers and a 60 per cent fall in incidents where officers used force, the BBC reported.

- The Greymouth Star