Local authorities heavily cut their spending on public space CCTV between 2012 and 2015, according to a report by the civil liberty campaign group Big Brother Watch. Councils control at least 45,284 CCTV cameras, a 12.5pc decrease from 2012; and at least £277m has been spent on the installation, maintenance and monitoring of these cameras, a decrease of 46.4pc from 2012. Of that, some £38.2m went on the installation of CCTV, a fall of 57.3pc from 2012; £139.5m was spent on the maintenance of cameras, a decrease of 42pc from 2012; and £99.3m was spent on the wages and salary costs of CCTV operators a decrease of 47pc from 2012.
Before newer and more invasive technologies are installed, BBW recommended that any adding to CCTV systems – capabilities such as smart technology, biometrics or linking systems – must consider the increased risk to citizen’s privacy. This should be clearly addressed in the business case, and privacy impact assessment as according to the data protection watchdog the ICO. Local authorities should regularly report statistics on the number of crimes detected, investigated and solved by each camera to show the need for such surveillance; a single point of contact should be created to oversee CCTV use and resolve complaints; and a single enforceable Code of Practice which applies to all CCTV cameras should be released.
In an intriguing sign of the common ground between regulators who want CCTV done according to best practice, and the civil liberty campaigners, Tony Porter the surveillance camera commissioner wrote a foreword to the BBW report, ‘Are they still watching – the cost of CCTV in an age of cuts‘ and said that he supported the report and its recommendations.
Councils have historically been enthusiastic at installing CCTV on our streets. Between 1999 and 2012 the number of cameras installed by local authorities across the country jumped from 21,000 to over 51,000, according to the BBW report. While some parts of the country have scrapped their public space CCTV altogether, and some district councils have ‘passed the parcel’ to town and parish councils, BBW does not necessarily feel that CCTV use in public is on the wane; as other areas, notably London have reported an increase in CCTV coverage. London has about three-tenths of the UK’s public space cameras. Several of the highest-spending UK councils for CCTV are in London; top is Westminster, Runnymede third and Croydon fourth, Ealing sixth, Enfield ninth and Camden tenth. That said, the south London borough of Lambeth has slashed its camera numbers during public sector austerity from 348 to 42. While nearly all councils are spending less, some far less, the campaign group warns of a possible lull ‘before the storm of new surveillance technology appears on our streets’, such as sound and gait recognition; and the risk of ‘smart’ networked systems being hacked and footage being accessed, even stolen, by hackers.
The report said: “We have long supported the use of CCTV where it is proven to be beneficial. We hope that in some areas cameras have been removed because they were not fit for purpose or poorly situated. It appears that a number of cost saving initiatives have been introduced such as an end to 24 hour monitoring of CCTV and the merging of the role of CCTV operator with other roles within the authority.”
Hackney borough has the most cameras of any single council; 2900. Next come three other London boroughs with more than a thousand each; Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Camden. Of the next six councils with most cameras – each more than 600 – only two are outside the London area, Swindon and Bristol. The other four are Woking, Greenwich, Hillingdon and Ealing. Some of the councils that have cut formerly large spends on CCTV to nothing or next to nothing include Bradford, Scarborough, East Lothian, Gateshead and Ceredigion (mid-Wales). A handful of councils are bucking the trend by spending far more on CCTV; such as Cardiff, Devon and Hertfordshire. While Ceredigion (notably Aberystwth) and Barrow in Furness are the largest systems to have gone to zero cameras, the most drastic cuts in camera numbers have been in lowland Scotland; Fife for instance going from 1420 cameras around 2010 to 102 by 2015; and Renfrewshire likewise from 420 to 38.
BBW welcomed the approach of Mid Sussex District Council which announced a public consultation ahead of replacing their stock of cameras; it published the location of the proposed new cameras, and the effectiveness of the ones already in place. “This kind of transparency and debate should be standard ahead of the installation of CCTV,” the report said. It also lists how many cameras each council says it has, and breaks down each council’s spend in terms of installation and operation and maintenance of fixed and mobile CCTV, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by BBW.
Photo by Mark Rowe; signage, Covent Garden, central London.
