Source: WA Department of Health, Body Worn Camera Use in Health Facilities Policy, effective 18 May 2026.

https://www.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Corp/Policy-Frameworks/Work-Health-and-Safety/Body-Worn-Camera-Use-in-Health-Facilities-Policy/Body-Worn-Camera-Use-in-Health-Facilities-Policy.pdf

At a glance

WA Health now has a mandatory policy for how body worn cameras can be used in public health facilities. The policy is intended to support safety during incidents of violence, aggression or threatening behaviour, while protecting people’s privacy, dignity and rights.

What the policy allows

• Body worn cameras can only be used by Security Officers when they are responding to incidents involving violent, aggressive or threatening behaviour.
• They are one part of a broader workplace violence and aggression response. The cameras may help deter or de-escalate behaviour and may create an objective record of an incident.
• They must be used lawfully, ethically and proportionately.

What the policy does not allow

• Cameras are not for routine or general surveillance.
• They must not be used for personal purposes, staff disputes, intimidation, harassment or discrimination.
• They should not be activated simply because a person is distressed, unwell, frustrated or upset unless there is an immediate safety risk involving threatening, violent or aggressive behaviour.

When cameras can be turned on

• A camera can only be activated when there is an imminent risk to the safety of workers, patients or visitors.
• Imminent risk means there is a credible and immediate threat based on current, clear and objective signs that harm is happening or about to happen.
• Where practicable, Security Officers must tell people clearly that the camera is being turned on and that they are being recorded. This may include physical actions, such as pointing to the camera, to support understanding.

Places and situations needing extra care

• Cameras should generally not be activated in highly private or sensitive spaces, such as toilets, change rooms, bathrooms, parent rooms, lactation rooms, clinical treatment areas, during medical procedures, or when someone is undressed.
• The exception is where there is an imminent safety risk involving threatening, violent or aggressive behaviour.
• Security Officers should consider relevant information from clinical staff before activating a camera, including known clinical conditions, substance use, triggers or behavioural history, particularly where recording may escalate the situation.

When recording must stop

• Recording should stop once the incident has been resolved, the immediate safety risk has passed, and the Security Officer has been stood down from the incident or risk.
• If a patient, carer, guardian, staff member or member of the public asks for recording to stop, the Security Officer must assess whether continued recording is still necessary and lawful.
• If recording continues, the person should be told clearly.

Privacy and access to footage

• Body worn cameras are treated as listening and optical surveillance devices under WA surveillance law.
• Recordings must avoid unlawful recording of private conversations or private activities.
• Footage must be downloaded and stored securely at the end of each shift, or as soon as practicable, in an access-controlled system.
• Stored footage must be linked to a relevant security incident report. Access, use or disclosure must be managed under relevant WA Health information access, retention, privacy and Aboriginal data governance policies.

How use will be reported and monitored

The policy includes only limited requirements for reporting and monitoring body worn camera use.

• When a workplace violence and aggression incident occurs and a camera is activated, the incident report must include the words “BWC activated” so footage can be linked to the incident record.
• Footage must be linked to the relevant security incident report and stored in an access-controlled system.
• Compliance monitoring focuses on whether Security Officers have completed mandatory body worn camera training.
• The System Governance and Reform Unit, on behalf of the System Manager, may ask Health Service Providers for additional information to evaluate compliance and support policy evaluation.
• The policy does not clearly set out routine public or consumer-facing reporting on how often cameras are used, where they are used, who is recorded, whether people ask for recording to stop, complaints about camera use, access requests, disclosures of footage, or audit outcomes.

Training and local procedures

• Health Service Providers must develop their own procedures that align with the statewide policy.
• Security Officers must complete training before wearing or operating a camera.
• Training must cover legal requirements, activation and deactivation, access and disclosure, end-of-shift processes, incident reporting, verbal notification, camera positioning and device operation.

Consumer-rights and implementation issues to watch

• Whether consumers, carers and visitors are told about camera use in clear, accessible and culturally safe ways.
• How staff decide that a safety risk is imminent, and whether that decision is documented consistently.
• How the policy is applied for people who are distressed, unwell, intoxicated, experiencing mental health crisis, cognitively impaired, neurodivergent, communicating in a language other than English, or experiencing cultural unsafety.
• Whether recording in sensitive clinical or personal spaces is treated as genuinely exceptional.
• How people can ask questions, raise concerns, make complaints or request access to information about footage involving them.
• Whether local procedures include practical guidance for de-escalation, trauma-informed care, disability access, interpreter use, and culturally safe communication.
• Whether local monitoring includes consumer-focused measures, such as number of activations, locations, reasons for activation, requests to stop recording, complaints, access requests, disclosures and equity impacts.

Note

This summary is intended to support discussion. It does not replace the official WA Health policy.