New safeguards for wardens

Rotorua Lakes Council is upgrading its parking wardens' handheld communication devices. Photo / File

New safety measures are being introduced to help protect Rotorua's parking wardens, who the council says are regularly subjected to abuse.

Rotorua Lakes Council inner city operations manager Richard Horn said wardens' handheld communication devices were being upgraded to include new safety measures.

These included video capabilities to record disputes and conflicts, ready identification of their location, a record of conversations and a mobile phone application so 111 can be dialled in emergencies.

Mr Horn said the move was part of an on-going initiative to ensure staff were provided with a safe working environment.

"Wardens are regularly subjected to verbal abuse and they manage this by being polite but firm with abusers. If an incident is serious it is reported to management and in some cases referred to police."

He said 20 "serious incidents" had been recorded since 2008, nine of which were for people being ticketed.

He said the five wardens - three female and two males - had radio telephone contact with headquarters and with each other.

"Wardens can also make [radio telephone] contact with our four City Safe Guardians if help is required. Rotorua retailers are very supportive of our wardens who know they can seek refuge in retail stores if their safety is at risk."

Rotorua police prevention manager Inspector Stu Nightingale said police took a "dim view" of people abusing wardens.

"The warden enforcement team have an important job to do. If it wasn't for their visibility and their work we would have a number of issues in the central business district."

Whakatane District Council has recently provided GoPro cameras to parking wardens to record disputes.

The council's public affairs manager Ross Boreham said the cameras worked successfully.

"It was initially a trial but we have been using it for some months now. I think the message from our warden staff is that they have reduced the number of incidents, going from one per day to one per month, where wardens are feeling threatened."

Mr Horn said the possibility of Rotorua wardens wearing GoPro cameras could be considered once information from other council trials was available.