Closed Circuit Television (CCTV):

Transcription

1 Scrutiny Research Team Closed Circuit Television (CCTV): Areas to consider in the management of CCTV A briefing paper for the Community and Adult Services Committee November 2013 County Council of The City and County of Cardiff 1

2 Contents Page 1 Introduction Aims and objectives Background Why use CCTV The current debates The Legal considerations for CCTV Who the codes apply to Guiding principles for the use of CCTV What must an organisation using CCTV do? When can CCTV images be disclosed? How long can an organisation retain CCTV images? Case Studies: Models of control centre / CCTV management Council management with close partnership working - Denbighshire Council The future of CCTV in Denbighshire Regional CCTV Boston Council - Partnership Working Running CCTV and control rooms in partnership with other local authorities - The Hertfordshire partnership Funding cross- authority CCTV: Community Safety Partnerships and CCTV - Rugby Council Outsourcing CCTV to the Private Sector - Bexley Council Mobile CCTV units - Redbridge Council References:

3 1 Introduction The Community and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee (CASSC) is conducting policy development scrutiny of the CCTV strategy which the council is updating. This paper seeks to outline some of the considerations that need to be taken into account when exploring CCTV as well as how CCTV has been managed in other local authorities. 1.1 Aims and objectives This project aims to: Provide a briefing to members on areas to consider when using CCTV in relation to: The purpose of CCTV The effectiveness of CCTV Legal considerations Differing Management models of CCTV The use of Mobile CCTV Provide examples of CCTV management practices by local authorities. 2 Background The use of CCTV provision in public spaces across the UK began in the early 1980s. Since then the use of CCTV systems has expanded significantly by both public bodies and private enterprises. The majority of the earliest systems were funded by local authorities through what were then known as City Challenge or Safer Cities Initiatives. However, in a small number of cases, systems were funded by the police or local businesses. Subsequent Government funding took the form of the CCTV Challenge Competition between 1994 and 1999, under which 38.5 million was made available for some 585 schemes nationwide. Although the Government has invested heavily in public space CCTV schemes, so too have local authorities and local partnerships. 3

4 Most public space CCTV is now owned, monitored and managed by local authorities, many of whom have procured different systems at different times and with a range of different specifications. This has led to a wide variety of schemes across the country with varying management systems, partnership involvement and technological capabilities. However, while a large number of local authority operated CCTV cameras exist, it is only a very small proportion of the nation s CCTV provision, as the vast majority are commercially owned. 3 Why use CCTV The current debates The use of CCTV has now become so commonplace that very few people question its use, particularly in city centre areas. A NACRO report (Armitage 2002) has summarised some of the assumptions behind the use of CCTV for crime prevention purposes: Deterrence - The potential offender becomes aware of the presence of CCTV, assesses that the risks of offending in this location outweigh the benefits and chooses either not to offend or to offend elsewhere. Efficient deployment - CCTV cameras allow those monitoring the scene to determine whether police assistance is required. This ensures that police resources are called upon only when necessary. Self discipline by potential victims - They are reminded of the risk of crime, therefore altering their behaviour accordingly. by potential offenders - the threat of potential surveillance (whether the cameras are actually being monitored may be irrelevant) acts to produce a self discipline in which individuals police their own behaviour. Presence of a capable guardian The Routine Activity Theory suggests that for a crime to be committed there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian. 4

5 Any act that prevents the convergence of these elements will reduce the likelihood of a crime taking place. CCTV, as a capable guardian, may help to reduce crime Detection CCTV cameras capture images of offences taking place. In some cases this may lead to punishment and the removal of the offenders ability to offend (either due to incarceration, or increased monitoring and supervision Armitage (2002) Despite these assumptions there are groups that remain opposed to the use of CCTV and what they see as the implications on privacy. Opponents to CCTV often argue that there is no way to consent to being filmed and that people s freedoms are being eroded with little justification (No CCTV 2011). Indeed many fear that if CCTV increases, the state will operate such a high degree of control over the public realm that people s private lives will no longer be private. The counter to this argument is that CCTV helps reduce crime and so any reduction in freedoms has to be viewed in parallel with the benefits that CCTV brings in relation to crime and safety. There is however, some contention regarding a number of smaller studies which emphasise the benefits CCTV has in relation to crime with studies being criticised for poor methodologies and lacking comparator data (Woodhouse 2010). However, there have also been more rigorous studies which conclude that CCTV has a modest but significant desirable effect on crime (Welsh et al 2008). 4 The Legal considerations for CCTV Most uses of CCTV will be covered by the Data Protection Act. This gives individuals the right to see information held about them, including CCTV images or images which give away information about them (such as car number plates). 5

6 Almost all uses of CCTV by organisations or businesses will be covered by the Act, regardless of the number of cameras or how sophisticated the equipment is. As well as the Data Protection Act there is the CCTV Code of Practice (2008) and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (2013) which must be considered when using CCTV. These codes provide guidance on how institutions using CCTV can ensure they abide by the Data Protection Act as well as areas of good practice. The key areas for consideration from these codes are summarised below. 4.1 Who the codes apply to The codes are provided for public institutions who are using CCTV. However, duty to have regard to the codes does not extend to third party service providers or partners. Therefore when a relevant authority sub contracts this work to a third party it is vital that any contract ensures that the codes are adhered to, as it is the commissioning authority who is liable. The code is also applicable to traffic and highways cameras. 4.2 Guiding principles for the use of CCTV The codes recognise that all surveillance camera systems use technology which has significant potential to intrude on the individual s right to privacy in private and family life. However, the codes attempt to regulate the balance between individual privacy and crime prevention, by creating a set of guiding principles that are applicable to all surveillance camera systems in public places. These are the twelve guiding principles which organisations using CCTV must consider at all times which have been taken from the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (2013): 1. Use of a surveillance camera system must always be for a specified purpose which is in pursuit of a legitimate aim and necessary to meet an identified pressing need. 2. The use of a surveillance camera system must take into account its effect on individuals and their privacy, with regular reviews to ensure its use remains justified. 6

7 3. There must be as much transparency in the use of a surveillance camera system as possible, including a published contact point for access to information and complaints. 4. There must be clear responsibility and accountability for all surveillance camera system activities including images and information collected, held and used. 5. Clear rules, policies and procedures must be in place before a surveillance camera system is used, and these must be communicated to all who need to comply with them. 6. No more images and information should be stored than that which is strictly required for the stated purpose of a surveillance camera system, and such images and information should be deleted once their purposes have been discharged. 7. Access to retained images and information should be restricted and there must be clearly defined rules on who can gain access and for what purpose such access is granted. The disclosure of images and information should only take place when it is necessary for such a purpose or for law enforcement purposes. 8. Surveillance camera system operators should consider any approved operational, technical and competency standards relevant to a system and its purpose and work to meet and maintain those standards. 9. Surveillance camera system images and information should be subject to appropriate security measures to safeguard against unauthorised access and use. 10. There should be effective review and audit mechanisms to ensure legal requirements, policies and standards are complied with in practice, and regular reports should be published. 11. When the use of a surveillance camera system is in pursuit of a legitimate aim, and there is a pressing need for its use, it should then be used in the most effective way to support public safety and law enforcement with the aim of processing images and information of evidential value. 12. Any information used to support a surveillance camera system which compares against a reference database for matching purposes should be accurate and kept up to date. 7

8 Coupled with the principles outlined above, the Information Commissioners Office have provided a quick online guide which sums up the key points for any organisation using CCTV or anyone wanting access to CCTV images What must an organisation using CCTV do? Make sure someone in the organisation has responsibility for the CCTV images, deciding what is recorded, how images should be used and who they should be disclosed to; Register with the Information Commissioner s Office; Have clear procedures on how to use the system and when to disclose information; and Make regular checks to ensure the procedures are followed When can CCTV images be disclosed? Individuals have the right to see CCTV images of themselves and to ask for a copy of them. The organisation must provide them within 40 calendar days of the request, and it is likely that individuals will be asked to pay a fee of up to 10 (this is the maximum charge, set by Parliament). This is called a Subject Access Request. You will need to provide details to help the operator to establish your identity as the person in the pictures, and to help them find the images on their system. CCTV operators are not allowed to disclose images of identifiable people to the media - or to put them on the internet - for entertainment. An organisation may need to disclose CCTV images for legal reasons - for example, crime detection. Once they have given the images to another organisation, then that organisation must adhere to the Data Protection Act in their handling of the images. Public authorities are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, or the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act This Act allows members of the public to request official information by writing to the public authority, who must respond within 20 working days. 8

9 4.2.3 How long can an organisation retain CCTV images? Organisations should have a retention policy. They should only keep the images for as long as necessary to meet the purpose of recording them. (Information Commissioners office Website) 5 Case Studies: Models of control centre / CCTV management All of these case studies are illustrations of how CCTV management is linked to the wider objectives of reducing crime and the fear of crime and involve partnership working with the community safety partnership. The precise models used include: Individual local authority led Cross local authority led Community Safety Partnership led Public private partnership One specific case of the use of mobile CCTV 5.1 Council management with close partnership working - Denbighshire Council Denbighshire Council s CCTV system is operated and managed by the Planning and Public Protection Service. It is located in Rhyl Police Station. The primary purpose of the system is to support the Community Safety Partnerships approach to reduce both the level of crime and fear of crime. Besides the police, partnership working with other council teams and external agencies is seen as an essential element of the CCTV service and involves close working relationships with Community Safety Enforcement, Licensing, Tourism, Public Realm, Coastal Facilities, Environmental Health, Housing Enforcement, Fire Service, Coast Guard & Lifeboat services, Ambulance Service, RSPCA, private security firms etc. The CCTV Department also provides secondary services for the Council by being the Emergency Out of Hours Customer Service Contact Centre (i.e. acts as the Council s main point of contact during the evenings, at night, at 9

10 weekends and public holidays), CCTV recorded a total of 2085 out of hours emergency calls in 2012 (2011: 1649) The future of CCTV in Denbighshire Regional CCTV North Wales are currently looking into a business case to replace the 6 North Wales Control Rooms with Regional CCTV Control Rooms. The Project Leadership Board consisting of 6 Chief Executive Officers decided that there should be a regional CCTV service but based on 2 Control Rooms. The aim of this project is to both reduce costs (e.g. not providing a 24/7 service, looking at collaboration opportunities at a sub-regional level etc.), and increase income (e.g. providing an improved service to the Police and renegotiating their contribution, greater security support to Council assets, a renegotiation of existing internal recharges, greater alarm monitoring and key holder services, enhanced lone working tracking, monitor Town Council CCTV systems, commercial monitoring opportunities, traffic enforcement, provide monitoring service for others employment of RCCTV, rapid deployment CCTV systems etc). 5.2 Boston Council - Partnership Working The Boston Borough Council CCTV control room acts as liaison and communications hub for multiple agencies working in partnership trying to create a safer environment to live and work. The Council believe that good communication is at the core of successful partnership working. The CCTV control room is therefore connected to local business and partner agencies through the Shop-Watch / Pub-Watch radio system. The Council are also at the centre of a group of agencies that include - Police & PCSO, Boston BID Town Rangers, Street Pastors, Night-Time, Economy Officers, Retail Premises and Pubs and Club. The CCTV unit also work with Housing Associations and colleagues in other departments of Boston Borough Council. 10

11 5.3 Running CCTV and control rooms in partnership with other local authorities - The Hertfordshire partnership Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership is made up of four main partners: Stevenage Borough Council North Hertfordshire District Council East Hertfordshire District Council Hertsmere Borough Council The partnership also has a number of clients: Letchworth Heritage Foundation Central Bedfordshire Council Hertfordshire Schools. The partnership is actively pursuing a joint initiative aimed at reducing the fear of crime across the principal public, residential, retail, business and schools within the partnership. The Hertfordshire Partnership is overseen by the Joint CCTV Committee made up of elected members and officers from the partner authorities. The Control Room works closely with the Community Safety Partnership linking in with other groups Funding cross- authority CCTV: The Partnership sells its services to other public bodies and local authorities, including schools, and also to the private sector. Any surplus from these contracts subsidises the cost of the services for the Partner authorities but substantial funding from the Partners is also required to maintain the operation. As a result the Partners have agreed to extend these trading activities at least until the Partners own services are fully subsidised. The partnerships five year Business Plan seeks to expand the service by by introducing new public body and private clients. 11

12 5.4 Community Safety Partnerships and CCTV - Rugby Council The Community Safety Partnership (CSP) in Rugby operate any cameras outside of the town centre. The use of cameras outside of the town centre is always a partnership decision for the CSP. Working in partnership the CSP ensure that no single agency has control of the networks. There is a process in place to ensure that any privacy screens can not be removed by any single officer. The CSP only deploy the cameras based on recorded crime and only use the cameras where crime is being reported. Portable cameras are deployed by the Tasking and Coordination group which is chaired by officers from Warwickshire Police and made up of members across the CSP. Monthly meetings decide if there is any need to move a camera. This decision is based on data from recorded crime to ensure justification for any move. Cameras are moved at the discretion of the CSP and they do not consult on these change. The typical deployment will be raised by a single agency and the situation is then discussed thoroughly. This can be any crime issue; however the moves are based on the CSP priorities. 5.5 Outsourcing CCTV to the Private Sector - Bexley Council Bexley Council was exploring cost effective ways to introduce new technology, update the CCTV system and transform the way it managed its CCTV whilst laying the foundations for future improvement and innovation. In order to achieve these aims, the route the Council took was a public private partnership. The council were keen to ensure that their staff did not suffer as part of this out sourcing operation. They therefore felt that successful management and transfer of the existing staff was critical. Discussions took place between the Council, Siemens and the staff, with the result that Siemens transferred all operational staff on their existing contractual terms and conditions. There were no redundancies. 100% of the existing staff were retained. There is now a pool of 25 SIA licensed staff. 12

13 Bexley Council also identified the financial benefits for out sourcing as: Reduced costs. Reduced risk. Fixed costs for the life of the contract. Proposals to deliver added value through potential income generation. Almost two years after the transfer, the council felt that the new service has delivered many of the benefits that were sought: Improved technology and systems mean that the control room can work even more effectively in partnership with the police and the local TownSafe and PubSafe radio schemes. The camera location and mapping service has made it much easier to track live incidents. The total number of arrests linked to the system increased from 448 in 2009, to 618 in 2010 and 700 in The amount of evidence issued to the police increased by 20.6% from 2009 to 2010 and 7.4% from 2010 to The camera downtime has reduced from 20.6% in to 7.4% in Asset availability is currently running at 99.8%. The borough has retained control over the service and can now performance manage its CCTV operation with defined Service Level Agreements. There are regular review meetings to keep both parties informed of progress which include audit trails, management reports and trend analysis. All the borough s costs are fixed, including personnel, which facilitates budgeting, while fixed framework contracts have resulted in savings in procurement and a reduction in the management of multiple suppliers. There is a clear technology roadmap to develop future CCTV services and help maintain community safety across Bexley. The council feel that the service has enabled Bexley to commercialise its assets and become a centre of excellence for CCTV, providing services to 13

14 other public and private sector organisations. Attention is now turning towards securing further contracts to monitor cameras for other local authorities, housing associations and the private sector. 5.6 Mobile CCTV units - Redbridge Council A CCTV van was purchased with funding from the Redbridge Safer Community Partnership in The van is used to patrol areas, which cannot be covered by fixed cameras or where there are transient problems. Deployments are based upon intelligence and requests from the Police, Area Committees, in support of planned operations or events. The council also has access to a covert CCTV van, for use in identifying fly tippers and graffiti artists, this vehicle is operated by the Anti-Social Behaviour Team, and has had some successes. However the images obtained cannot be transmitted back to the control room. Redbridge have found that there is a growing appetite for the use of these portable cameras but also recognise there are competing priorities amongst different agencies. The councils own report into the mobile cameras outlines this issue as: Safer Communities Partnership would welcome a strategy/plan to address the long term planned provision of CCTV in the Borough based on crime reduction data and a more responsive/flexible service to address emerging need The Street Scene service is looking to use similar technology to identify fly tippers in known problem areas. These cameras all have limitations, particularly in respect of their operability and the quality of the images produced, which generally are not of evidential quality. Metropolitan Police Service, Redbridge Borough - would welcome redeployable cameras as long as there was appropriate infrastructure and adequate camera provision for cameras to be deployed within 24 hours maximum and supported/monitored through the CCTV Control Room Victim Support would welcome exploring arrangements and opportunities with all relevant agencies to extend provision and co- 14

15 ordination of redeployable cameras and enhancing current working arrangements to address vulnerability/emerging crimes mainly through redeployable cameras and monitoring Redbridge Homes - would be interested in contributing funding towards a remote system of cameras, which would allow flexibility within estates. The Community Protection Group - would welcome a more holistic, flexible and coordinated approach to the use of CCTV i.e. to address crime and enforcement as well as to gather and use information accordingly, subject to legal implications Therefore the Council have to make a decision on where their priorities lie as well as exploring potential funding avenues when examining the future use of these mobile units. 6 References: Armitage, R. (2002) - To CCTV or not to CCTV? A review into the current effectiveness of CCTV in reducing crime - NACRO (accessed 12 November 2013) Denbighshire Council (2013) Denbighshire CCTV Service Report to the Performance Scrutiny Committee - enbighshire+council+(2013)+%e2%80%93+denbighshire+cctv+service+% E2%80%93+Report+to+the+Performance+Scrutiny+Committee+-+ (accessed 12 November 2013) Welsh, B; Farrington, D. (2008) - Effects of Closed Circuit Television Surveillance on Crime Campbell Systematic Reviews The Campbell collaboration 15

16 Information Commissioners Office (2008) CCTV Code of Practice revised edition led_specialist_guides/ico_cctvfinal_2301.ashx (accessed 12 November 2013) Information Commissioners Office website - (accessed 12 November 2013) London Borough of Bexley (2012) Public Private Partnerships Modernising Bexley s CCTV service - (accessed 12 November 2013) No CCTV (2011) - The Manufacture of "Surveillance by Consent - anpr_and_the_manufacture_ of_consent.htm (accessed 12 November 2013) Redbridge Council (2008) Community Safety Scrutiny Committee Report of the CCTV scrutiny working group - 1&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.redbridge.gov.uk%2Fcms% 2Fidoc.ashx%3Fdocid%3D23DEE819-58ED-475D A6ACC13C4C3%26version%3D-1&ei=- ed8uqzzoke60qwi14hqdq&usg=afqjcnf-- EFsM3RVK1VQMIN2FCQKswjcmg&bvm=bv ,d.d2k (accessed 12 November 2013) Rugby Council Website - (accessed 12 November 2013) 16

17 Sedgemoor Council Website - (accessed 12 November 2013) Stevenage Borough Council Website - The North Hertfordshire CCTV Partnership (accessed 12 November 2013) Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (2013) Home office /Surveillance_Camera_Code_of_Practice_WEB.pdf (accessed 12 November 2013) Woodhouse, J. (2010) - CCTV and its effectiveness in tackling crime A report to the Home Affairs Committee House of commons Library 17