CCTV User Group: Local authorities cut CCTV at their peril

The CCTV User Group, the UK’s leading representative of the CCTV industry and its users and operators, is warning local authorities against slashing video surveillance in the coming round of budget cuts.

According to CCTV User Group estimates, there are approximately 33,000 CCTV cameras owned by local authorities in England and Wales, covering public spaces such as roads, shopping districts, parks and social housing.

With central Government threatening to cut awards to local authorities, councils may have to find 20 per cent or more in savings and may be tempted to target non-statutory services such as CCTV video surveillance.

However, with overwhelming public support for CCTV and the threat of rising crime which tends to follow periods of austerity and recession, councillors risk a backlash from their constituents if they start removing cameras.

“For a relatively modest investment in equipment and staff, local authorities provide an invaluable support to local police in controlling crime and social disorder,” said Peter Fry, director of the CCTV User Group.

The Group, which recently held its annual conference, is comprised of CCTV professionals from throughout the UK including managers and operators of CCTV systems, consultants, service providers and installers, as well as manufacturers.

Delegates to the conference were deeply concerned about the impact that cuts to CCTV would have on local crime and disorder. One CCTV manager, summarising the view of many, said that the debate boils down to one simple question for councillors: “Do you want to protect your residents?”

Local authorities understand that CCTV is in high demand by residents, and councillors are regularly asked for additional cameras to be installed.

Despite this support, there have been notable cases where CCTV cameras have been deactivated or even entire systems decommissioned, only to be forced to reinstall the cameras after complaints by local businesses and residents.


Act in haste, repent at leisure

Bournemouth was an early leader in the installation of CCTV in the UK. Five years ago it decided to remove ageing cameras along the seafront rather than replace them. The removal of the cameras was quickly followed by a rise in crime in the area and the council decided to fund the installation of new cameras.

The screens went blank in Lisburn two years ago when the local business group was unable to provide enough money to keep the system working. They appealed unsuccessfully to the PSNI to make a contribution and shortly after shut the system down. Crime soared when the cameras were switched off and the PSNI quickly found the funds to help restore the system.

* http://www.lisburntoday.co.uk/news/LISBURN-CCTV-SCREENS-COULD-GO.3825081.jp
* http://www.4ni.co.uk/northern_ireland_news.asp?id=74617

Turning systems off and back on again is not a simple matter, and a council may incur costs for contract terminations and decommissioning of equipment only to have to spend additional money to purchase new equipment and hire new staff.

“In this age of budget austerity, we cannot afford to waste money chasing imaginary savings,” Peter Fry said. “While it makes sense to look for savings where they can reasonably be found, CCTV should only be cut back after careful examination of the potential impact on local communities and businesses and in consultation with the local police.”

Police support for CCTV is in evidence throughout the country. In my experience of visiting numerous systems up and down the country, police are keen to work closely with local authority CCTV systems, providing access to Airwave police radios and databases, regular intelligence briefings and control room visits and even full-time officers based in the control room.

While it is essential to have officers on patrol, meeting local people and responding to incidents, bobbies on the beat can’t be everywhere and they can’t see around corners, whereas a CCTV operator will have access to numerous cameras and can jump from place to place to monitor an incident as it unfolds.

Local authorities must think carefully before they start cutting CCTV. What may look like an easy option to cut a line item from the budget may wind up costing them in terms of public support, money from the budget and crime on the streets.

Queen's Speech: CCTV in the crosshairs

CCTV was in the crosshairs today as the Queen revealed the Government's legislative programme.

One of the 22 Bills announced today is the Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill which among other things calls for the "further regulation of CCTV".

The Number 10 website gives some details about the Bill here including these points:

• The main benefits of the Bill would include: "Protecting privacy by introducing new legislation to regulate the use of CCTV."
  
• The main elements of the Bill include: "Further regulation of CCTV."
• And existing legislation on CCTV is: "Data Protection Act 1998 and Regulation of Investigation Act 2000 (sic)". (Should be Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, but never mind!).

Follow the link to a copy of a speech by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and you learn more about the Government's intentions in this area (forgive the wordiness of the summation but I think a little context is important here):

• Early in the speech, he refers to hard-won civil liberties which need protecting. "This government will end the culture of spying on its citizens. It is outrageous that decent, lawabiding people are regularly treated as if they have got something to hide. It has to stop. So, there will be no ID card scheme, no national identity register, a halt to second generation biometric passports. We will not hold your internet and email records when there is no reason to do so. CCTV will be properly regulated, as will the DNA storage database..."(It mystifies me why CCTV is lumped with DNA but that's a topic for another post).
  
• According to Nick Clegg, CCTV quashes dissent and limits freedom. "Our democracy has suffered at the hands of encroaching centralisation and secrecy for decades. Take citizens’ rights: eroded by the quiet proliferation of laws that increase surveillance, quash dissent, limit freedom." (I would take the opposite view and say that CCTV helps protect the freedoms of the vulnerable and the law-abiding citizens by helping to identify criminals who make some people's lives unbearable).

Of course to find out the true intent of the Freedom Bill, one has to go to the LibDem website where you can find the original document. Since this is Nick Clegg's baby, and he has the support of the Prime Minister, we can assume that this will go into the Government's Bill largely intact.

The Freedom Bill says in part 2, Chapter 4 "Regulation of CCTV": "(1) A Royal Commission is to be established to make urgent recommendations on the use and regulation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and the impact of CCTV on privacy."

This is elaborated on in the explanatory notes:

"Britain is the most watched society in the world. We have less than one per cent of the world’s population but a fifth of the earth’s CCTV cameras. In the Big Brother state that Labour has created, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is all pervasive. There are over four million CCTV cameras in Britain – one for every fourteen people and you can be captured on camera over three hundred times every day. In the 1990s, the Home Office spent 78 per cent of its crime prevention budget on installing CCTV and an estimated £500 million of public money was invested in the CCTV infrastructure in the last decade.

"CCTV is not the panacea for crime many would have us believe. Outside of CCTV being used to catch speeding drivers; in car parks and to deter other property crime, there is little hard evidence to demonstrate that CCTV works to prevent crime or to bring offenders to justice. A Home Office study concluded that “the CCTV schemes that have been assessed had little overall effect on crime levels.” And a lot of CCTV evidence is unusable in court. Yet CCTV cameras are increasingly prevalent across the country and the technology is becoming more advanced all the time. More and more cameras, for example, are now incorporating automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software. It is staggering; therefore, that CCTV is essentially unregulated.

"The Liberal Democrats believe that before we sleepwalk any further into a surveillance society in which our every move is recorded, the use of CCTV should be publicly debated with a review to its full regulation. A recent report by the House of Lords concluded that the UK “leads the world” in the use of CCTV but despite this, there were “few restrictions” and no clear legal limit to their use. Increased use of ANPR has only heightened these concerns. Now is the time to act. The Liberal Democrats believe that a Royal Commission should be established to make urgent recommendations on the use and regulation of CCTV in a bid to protect privacy. Many local authorities, such as Cambridge City Council, have already done sterling work in producing codes of practice governing the use of CCTV. This would seem as good a place as any for the Royal Commission to start their investigation and to consider giving such codes statutory force."

Regulation of CCTV is on its way. This government has the votes and the will to do it, so the industry should begin lobbying now for a form of regulation that will work, rather than something that's designed to hobble owners and operators of CCTV systems who, at the end of the day, are simply trying to protect their customers, staff or property or, in the case of publicly owned systems, help the police to protect the public.

CCTV User Group Conference 2009

CCTV User Group 2009 conference from Security Media Publishing

CCTV User Group 2009 conference.
Four Pillars Hotel - Cotswolds

Networking event for end-users and commercial members of the User Group to meet and discuss HOT Topics

CCTV Image magazine - Issue 36 - Advance features

Advance features list – issue 36 – November 2009
Articles being considered for our next issue – (Subject to change)

· Rooms with a View: case studies of control rooms and CCTV systems around the country
· London Borough of Bexley: This London borough will shortly begin a complete refurbishment of its control room. We will be looking at the plans for the new facility, and how they hope to transform the existing room into a state-of-the-art CCTV and emergency control centre.
· Transport for London: TfL and 13 London Boroughs are actively developing a scheme which enables the sharing of local authority and roadside CCTV cameras. Not only does it save money and reduce duplication of effort, it is also boosting levels of cooperation between various London agencies including TfL, London Boroughs, and the police.
· CCTV User Group conference: Extensive coverage of this keystone event in the CCTV industry diary including:
· Several sessions on operators and factors that affect their performance
· Covert surveillance and counter-surveillance
· Video analytics
· National CCTV strategy
· Securing cash in transit with CCTV
· Several case studies of groundbreaking CCTV systems
· And more excellent reasons to read CCTV Image:
· Prof. Martin Gill – a regular column from the CCTV academic and director of the Perpetuity Group.
· Talking Shop – with some of the leading consultants in CCTV today.

DEADLINES
Editorial: 26 October 2009 Advertising: 2 November 2009
CONTACTS Editor – Tom Reeve
Tel. 020-8255 5007
Fax 020-8255 5007
tom.reeve@cctvimage.com
Sales – Jack Lunn
Tel. 01543-250734
Mob. 07912-479916
jack.lunn@cctvimage.com
Sales – Nick Sutton
Tel. 01543-250592
Mob. 07794-579417
nick.sutton@cctvimage.com

CCTV Image the Blogathon begins

Good Morning from Tom Reeve, Editor of CCTV Image.
Welcome to our blog.

CCTV Image - Magazine & website
CCTV Media - Website

If you have any security news or views, please don't hesitate to drop me a line - tom.reeve@cctvimage.com

In addition, you may download or view our Media kit and study the advertising and editorial opportunities with CCTV Image magazine and its readership.

CCTV Image Media Kit (PDF)

Download or view the Media Kit here

Kind regards to all from the team at CCTV Image and CCTV Media.