WASTE disposal and parking enforcement officers in Bournemouth and Poole are equipped with 'body-worn' cameras.

Both councils have confirmed the number of such devices they have in use in response to a Freedom of Information Request.

Bournemouth council said it has equipped the 'street wardens' on its Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) with cameras, which it manages. CSAS officers patrol in Boscombe and have similar powers to police community support officers.

Bournemouth's environmental enforcement officers are provided with a camera service by security firm 3GS, its community enforcement officers by Insight Security, and its parking enforcement officers by BCAM Ltd.

Borough of Poole's use of cameras is more limited with only two, assigned to waste staff.

The response from the borough's information team says: "Environmental services have two body cameras which are owned by the council and worn by the outsourced security staff working on the gate at Nuffield Household Waste Recycling Centre, and at Millhams Community Recycling Centre which we operate on behalf of Bournemouth council.

"The data is kept in-house and owned by the council. We do not have the purchase details as they are several years old."

Bournemouth council says it has 30 cameras in use with parking services staff, which were a one-off purchase at a cost of £10,758.

Both the CSAS wardens have cameras, which cost £1,500 to purchase with licences.

The borough's freedom of information team said the data captured by the cameras was stored "on a stand-alone system, fully encrypted with access only to three named personnel".

The environmental services and parking officer data is stored in cloud systems maintained by 3GS and BCAM respectively.

Last year Dorset Police issued body-worn cameras to its firearms officers, following a trial period.

The police cameras are attached to the officer's uniform but do not permanently record, and footage that is not retained as evidence or for a policing purpose is automatically deleted within 31 days.

Those who support the technology say it offers greater transparency for those in front of the camera as well as behind it, while helping to protect public servants and members of the public from abuse.