Whanganui parking wardens still targets for abuse despite wearing body cameras

The council employs three parking wardens. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui parking wardens continue to face abuse despite them wearing body cameras.

There have been 11 reports of threatening or abusive behaviour towards Whanganui District Council staff from the start of August to the end of October.

Seven involved parking, with one at the council building on Guyton St, one at the Splash Centre, one at the animal pound and one at a council venue.

Council health, safety and wellbeing manager Olivia McQuillan told the operations and performance committee officers were running a programme assisting frontline staff to have the autonomy, training and support to deal with certain situations.

“That’s not just for customer service in the municipal building, that will be rolled out throughout all of our staff,” she said.

“Because these reports come to me and I check them every single day, we are ringing staff and making sure they are okay.

“We are understanding what those interactions are and what they mean to staff.”

Council chief executive David Langford said animal control officers and parking wardens wearing body cameras “ought to be a deterrent”.

“Treat them with respect,” he said. “They are doing their job and if someone is violent and abusive towards our staff, we’ll have the evidence and we’ll report you to the police.”

The council currently employs three parking wardens, with paid parking in place across much of the city’s central business district.

Earlier this year, Langford spent an hour and a half with the customer service staff at its Guyton St building to observe how the public interacted with staff.

A specialist security consultant trained front counter staff in September after they raised concerns over risks to personal safety.

Councillor Ross Fallen said he witnessed a member of the public get more and more upset in the council building a few weeks ago.

“I rolled up my sleeves and thought maybe I would intervene, but I watched two staff do what I call a de-escalation profile.

“I want to give compliments to the training the staff have got because I wouldn’t have managed that very well at all. I would have lost my cool a wee bit.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.