The rolling hills that play host to the Glastonbury festival have a reputation among cannabis aficionados of being the safest joint in the country to, well, roll up a joint.

But this year potsmokers will not able to lounge under trees with their customary mellow insouciance, casually blowing fragrant smoke towards uninterested police officers.

For the police are coming equipped with shoulder-mounted cameras that will transmit live footage back to a surveillance unit, forcing officers to take action or risk the wrath of their superiors.

Each officer will be issued with a jacket containing a camera, recording device and transmitter, which will beam information to a control room. The officer in charge will also be able to track his officers’ positions using a global-position-ing system device sewn into the jacket.

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One camera will be worn by a horse-mounted officer, another by a dog-handler looking specifically for drugs and a further two by patrolmen on foot.

Superintendent Adrian Coombs said that cannabis users would be given a “street warning”, which is not a criminal record but is noted as an offence against the person’s name. If the person is caught twice more the matter will be treated as a more serious offence.

The pilot scheme is regarded as a breakthrough by Avon and Somerset Police, which intends to use cameras to detect all types of crime.

But some festival-goers believe that it goes against the free-love ethos of the Glastonbury festival. Luke Nicholson, 24, a chef from Bridgwater, said it was an invasion of his privacy. “People come to Glastonbury to be away from cities to be at one with nature,” he said.

“It is the one place you would expect not to have to worry about being watched.”

Alasdair Field, whose company, Reveal Media, created the £100,000 system for the police, said he believed that there would come a day when all officers could transmit video footage.

Police chose to test the scheme at Glastonbury partly because they wanted to know if it would work in all weather conditions. The festival, despite being held in June, is often beset by bad weather, and this year has been no exception. Revellers were repeatedly soaked by heavy showers yesterday and more severe weather is expected today.

PC Sean McCreadie, who will be one of the officers testing the system, said: “It is effectively a mobile CCTV camera, which is especially useful for public events.”

It is one of several techniques that the police are pioneering at the festival to crack down on drugs and petty theft. Another scheme is a “covert capture tent” designed to lure opportunistic thieves, which contains miniature cameras. Thieves will be apprehended upon leaving the tent.

A spokeswoman for Avon and Somerset Police said: “There are signs in the area warning people that there is a covert capture tent in the area. It’s all about putting the fear of crime back in the criminal.”

There has been a sharp increase in arrests compared with the equivalent period in 2005, when the festival last took place. In the first 24 hours 29 people were arrested – 24 on suspicion of possessing drugs – up from 19 in 2005.

The numbers

300,000

number who applied for full-weekend tickets this year. Only 137,500 got in

2,000

acts playing this year

£1 cost of entry to the first festival 27 years ago

13,000

pairs of wellies sent by the store Millets.

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