Onkaparinga Council introduces new electronic sign-in system, with data including photos kept for six years

An Adelaide council has joined others in taking names, personal information and photos of people wanting to watch meetings – and will keep it for years.

People who want to simply watch Onkaparinga Council meetings will be required to hand over their names, personal details and photos for six years under new rules.

The council is joining several other Adelaide councils forcing visitors to hand over personal information after a “disruption” in 2023 that caused a council meeting to be abandoned because of “aggressive behaviour from members of the public”.

Visitors will need to sign in electronically with their name, mobile or email address before they attend a council or committee meeting, while a picture is taken and printed out on a badge that must be worn on-site at all times.

The “quick and easy” sign-in procedure applies to members of the public and contractors who need to access restricted areas such as staff areas, while elected members or people with front counter inquiries won’t need to do it.

A council spokesperson said it would also allow them to notify visitors of emergencies.

Visitors’ information will be stored for six years, with the council vowing the data would be secured and kept only for record-keeping.

The data will be stored through third-party software within Australia.

The $13,156 system is currently being trialled at the council’s Noarlunga office and field operations centre in Seaford Meadows and will be rolled out to further council-owned buildings.

The council has not ruled out it being used at the library.

The spokesperson said the new sign-in system was “common practice” across the country at places such as “schools, hospitals, aged-care facilities and state government buildings”.

They join other SA councils with the same system, including Salisbury, Charles Sturt, Burnside and Norwood Payneham and St Peters, they said.

It comes after the council made changes in January 2023, to increase the safety for staff, elected members and the public.

“Those previous changes were prompted by disruption at one of our council meetings that forced it to be adjourned, and disruptions at meetings of other councils,” the spokesperson said.

That 2023 incident occurred after technical difficulties meant a large public gallery outside were unable to follow a council meeting.

Onkaparinga Council Watch spokeswoman Evie Yvonne called the new safety measures a “misguided waste of ratepayer money”.

“Council needs to direct its efforts to deliver public calls for live-tracking council meetings, not a new system to live-track the public,” Ms Yvonne said.

“This new system does nothing for public safety but rather provides council new tools to take action after an incident has occurred.”

The sign-in process was funded by the LGA’s Mutual Liability Scheme risk incentive fund.

Originally published as Onkaparinga Council introduces new electronic sign-in system, with data including photos kept for six years