A new team of Highland traffic wardens will be wearing body cameras when they start their duties next month.
Highland Council will begin enforcing on and off street parking restrictions throughout the region from October 3 this year.
A team of a dozen parking enforcement officers will be making use of the new scheme.
Cameras mounted on the chest will capture video and audio and are activated by an officer when an offence has occurred or in situations where a recording may help keep the warden safe.
And members of the public will be consulted on the plans before the cameras are brought in.
Shane Manning, Highland Council’s principal traffic officer, is involved in the new scheme and says that such cameras are being used in a number of other authority areas in Scotland including Glasgow, and on a larger scale in England.
He added: “It’s a deterrent against unreasonable behaviour because people are prone to do things which they would not normally do if they are being recorded, and it’s to ensure transparency for everybody and is a very useful way to give piece of mind to staff and piece of mind to the public.
“From experience these parking enforcement officers are guys who have worked for the council in off-street car parks, and they’ve had experiences in the past where it would have been useful to record and deter certain behavior.
“The public consultation will be a useful way to gauge the level of use of the cameras, and having support for these activities is much better for public trust”.
Mr Manning added that the cost of the cameras has been incorporated into the budget for parking enforcement in the council area.
During recording, data is encrypted and stored on the device and transferred to a dedicated secure storage facility at the end of each shift where it remains for 90 days, unless required for investigation, before being deleted.
A council spokeswoman said: “The Highland Council wish to understand public views so they can be included in its privacy impact assessment.”
Privacy by design is a code of practice issued by the Information Commissioner under section 51 of the Data Protection Act and recommends that all services should be subject to a privacy impact assessment – which includes public consultation.
Members of the public can submit their comments to Highland Council, Traffic Management & Control Team, Community Services, Headquarters, Inverness IV3 5NX.
The consultation is now open and runs until Tuesday, September 27.
