Council health and safety adviser Bill Nelson said the council had a zero-tolerance policy towards "any harm, abuse or threats" towards it staff. After investigating "a number of adverse behaviour incidents earlier this year", the council's executive team signed off on a new body camera policy for staff and got one camera for the trial.
"The executive team authorised the trialling of body cameras in higher-risk areas of council activity, such as animal control, with the main objective being preventing unnecessary/unreasonable abuse by acting as a deterrent, but should that not be effective in changing behaviour, to record evidence," he said.
Mr Nelson said the body camera had been activated four times by animal control but "in most instances the deterrent factor worked and activation was not required".
The trial itself was free and if unsuccessful would only incur shipping costs back to the supplier, he said.
