The Hampshire authority has opted for the Carmacam system after a six-week trial.

The authority has 13 CEOs and one supervisor, with a maximum of eight on patrol at any time, it has bought nine of the lightweight systems, which cost £540 each, funded by the parking revenue budget. The system, also being used by Hampshire police, was chosen rather than a head mounted cameras as CEOs in Fareham do not wear hats. The devices are worn at chest level, displaying the words “video recording”. Whenever the camera is switched on, CEOs will inform the member of the public that they are being recorded, said Kevin Wright, the council’s head of community safety and enforcement. He added: “We will not tolerate any abuse of our CEOs and that includes verbal abuse. All incidents of abuse will be passed to the police. "The number of verbal and physical attacks on council staff went up from 10 in 2008/O9 to 21 last year. Of these 18 involved CEOs. . “Obviously we were concerned at the level of abuse that the officers were being subjected to both verbally and physically and this was a contributory factor to purchasing these cameras,” said Wright. "However, we also wanted to be able to record incidents, which may have otherwise been disputed and could have ended up with lengthy administrative and court proceedings through lack of evidence. “The cameras will also show if my staff did anything wrong.”