An evolution and proliferation of new video surveillance technologies and new capabilities – such as analytics, biometrics and ‘smart’ systems, body-worn cameras and drones – create a dynamic challenge for regulators, policy makers and lawmakers, Tony Porter, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, has said in his annual report.
On cyber security, he said that the risk potential for intrusion on citizens has significantly increased by lawful operators of surveillance camera systems and those (individuals or states) who seek to hack into systems. Cyber security has moved to the top of the security agenda, the report said.
The scale of organisations operating surveillance camera systems in the public domain go well beyond the limited range of ‘relevant authorities’ provided within the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which set up the Office of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, under the Coalition Government. It means, Tony Porter wrote, ‘my ability to regulate an improvement in the operation of surveillance camera systems in the public space is hampered’.
Given the ‘severe’ terror threat level, he asked whether the technology should be more coordinated; ‘to provide a more holistic and smart approach to surveillance’. “A more compelling question from my perspective is whether the regulatory framework to govern the responsible operation of surveillance camera systems in public spaces should be coordinated by a single regulator.”
The document recaps the National Surveillance Camera Strategy for England and Wales as published in March 2017. On Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), the report said that it ‘remains one of the largest non-military databases in the UK. It has a national infrastructure of approximately 9,000 cameras that captures between 25 to 40 million pieces of data (citizens’ number plates) per day and up to 20 billion ‘read’ records are held. Tony Porter argues that this system ‘needs legislative oversight and that the Government should place this system on a statutory footing’.
For the full 68-page report, visit the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s website.
Tony Porter thanked various people across the security industry for volunteering their time and help in taking his agendas forward; such as Philip Jones, Security Manager at Westfield Europe; at Transport for London, James Alexander (Head of Privacy and Data Protection) and Lee McGirr (Privacy Adviser) – TfL having about 20,000 cameras, for CCTV and ANPR; and Mark Sutton, the chair of the university security managers’ group AUCSO and Head of Security at Aston University.
Tony Porter wrote: “A message I receive loud and clear from all sectors is that utilising economies of scale, strategic leadership in harnessing these assets, ensuring effective regulation is in place to keep apace of new and emerging technology is the way forward.”
Comment
Silkie Carlo, Director of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The UK is already the most surveilled country of any Western democracy – and the surveillance state appears to be dangerously expanding. Big Brother Watch welcomes the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s warnings about the growing risks posed by the multi-billion pound surveillance network in the UK and emerging technologies. However, we would also like to see the Commissioner take urgent action.
“It is an outrage that police forces across the UK are using facial recognition in public spaces – effectively biometric checkpoints – in the absence of any clear legal basis or public consent. In addition, TfL, the NHS and schools are operating thousands of surveillance cameras beyond the oversight of the Commissioner, and the state is using cameras on our roads to track and record the car journeys of millions of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
“This growing, intrusive tracking of the UK’s population is unacceptable. Big Brother Watch will engage with the Commissioner and continue to fight the surveillance state in 2018 and beyond.”
Picture by Mark Rowe; public space CCTV, Islington, north London.
