The government's senior director of transport regulation, David Snowden, said his inspectors would be waiting.

From October 1, Mr Snowden's inspectors will no longer be patrolling national land for parking bandits – the National Capital Authority (NCA) will be taking on that job – but instead he said his employees would be in greater numbers in residential areas near national land.

"We'll be proactively patrolling those areas to make sure residential amenity is not impacted on by Commonwealth public servants who are trying to avoid paying $12 a day," he said.

"There will possibly be some motorists who might wish to optimise parking arrangements in suburbs near the NCA's national land."

It is government policy that his 24 Office of Regulatory Services (ORS) parking inspectors are not photographed or interviewed by the media to protect their privacy and "prevent potential harassment".

"If they're deployed in an area where there's a high concentration of motorists it's odds-on they'll encounter a disgruntled motorist," Mr Snowden said.

He has been running a large 150-strong workforce dealing with transport regulation issues inside ORS for the past two years.

"People need to understand there are very valid policy reasons that underpin parking requirements in the territory," he said.

"You don't want people parked in loading zones all day – if that happens the cafe doesn't get its fresh coffee beans."

At the same time it was important to remember his inspectors reflected the community they served.

The inspectors were aged up to 65. Some were mums who had recently returned to work. Others were former AFP protective services officers.

"They're hard-working Canberrans," he said.

His inspectors – all of whom were trained in conflict resolution and work in all types of weather seven days a week – would be helped on the beat by new smartphones costing $900 each.

"They're very quick, incredibly portable and light," Mr Snowden said.

The phones are linked in to the government's databases.