Parking wardens hope body cams will end abuse and harassment

From being yelled and beeped at to being followed on the job, parking enforcement officers in Hull say abuse has become their "normal". Now, it is hoped body-worn cameras will help tackle the problem.

I am walking a regular patrol route in the city with a female civil enforcement officer, but I cannot share her identity because of concerns for her safety.

"I'll get random people trying to ask me out, even though I'm telling them to move," she tells me.

She has grown used to people behaving inappropriately towards her and says it happens almost daily.

But sometimes situations can become more extreme. In one case, a woman "attempted to get in the vehicle that we were in and tried to follow us", she recalls. "That was very stressful."

Hull City Council's parking enforcement officers have now been equipped with body-worn cameras following what the authority describes as a successful trial. It is hoped the technology will deter or capture aggressive behaviour.

"I've had someone ask my age and I was like, that is not appropriate," the officer says.

"I didn't have that on film, so I couldn't really do anything about it, but this time we could if someone started to ask inappropriate questions."

A little more than 20 miles away in Goole, parking officers employed by East Riding of Yorkshire Council have been using the technology since 2018.

In a car park outside the town's train station, I meet John McKinland, a civil enforcement supervisor who says body-worn cameras help staff feel safer by acting as a "security blanket".

"There will be some verbal abuse, occasionally physical abuse as well, so officers have been assaulted in the past," McKinland says.

He explains the technology allows them to "keep a record" of incidents and, when switched on, "triggers a behavioural change" in people.

"It can lead to a de-escalation much quicker than would normally happen and less potential for a violent attack," he says.

"There will be others that will say I don't want to be recorded and they will try to grab the camera.

"But officers are trained to remove themselves from those kind of situations to back away and de-escalate."

The increasing use of cameras has led to concerns about privacy.

Sarah Lasoye, a programme manager at Open Rights Group, which campaigns to protect people's rights to privacy, says the issue is often overlooked during the introduction of new technology into a public space.

She says that while she understands arguments for the cameras, they could change people's "ability to feel at ease in public life".

"There's lots of different parts of our private life that now are subject to intrusion actually by these body-worn cameras.

"It changes their ability to express themselves freely."

Lasoye says the Open Rights Group is concerned" about "mass surveillance" and how the footage may be stored.

I ask McKinland about these worries and he tells me there are "safeguards in place".

"It's uploaded to a secure platform where it's encrypted," he says.

Hull City Council says all footage captured "will be handled in accordance with GDPR regulations".

Back in Hull, I am on patrol with another civil enforcement officer who tells me he has been assaulted while at work.

"It's a minority of cases, usually it's like a hit and run," he says.

He finds it "annoying", but because of his height it does not phase him too much.

"But they shouldn't be doing it," he adds.

A body camera is clipped to his chest and he says it has improved safety and accountability.

"It's like having a referee and they just behave themselves and they know we're going to behave ourselves.

"This ensures everybody gets a fair treatment."

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