Local councils and police forces have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to CCTV, but it is not without strain. The importance of good quality and timely provided CCTV footage cannot be underestimated as an essential source of evidence for police forces. However, the bone of contention for councils has long been the expectation that they foot the bill for funding, managing and maintaining public space surveillance. However, times are changing, and forces are shouldering more responsibility, as councils are faced with making difficult choices to balance the books.
The funding crisis facing local councils is not a new phenomenon. However, in recent weeks the issue has occupied the headlines as hiked Council Tax bills for the coming year are announced, along with a reduction in services, as Councils battle to not be the next to declare bankruptcy. At the same time there has been positive news, with stories of forces and councils collaborating to makes public space surveillance part of police operations. It is a project not without challenges, but in taking a longer-term view it has the potential to open a lot of new opportunities and be a win/win for both parties.
From a force perspective it gives them direct round the clock access to the cameras and evidence they need to make better policing decisions. For example, should an incident be reported, a live feed of the nearest cameras can be viewed, helping dispatch the right resources to the scene. Furthermore, should a suspect be apprehended the investigating officer can get faster access to evidence, potentially helping to obtain a guilty plea, and speeding up the process of sharing evidence with the CPS for a charging decision. This approach dovetails with investments made by forces in recent years in DEMS (Digital Evidence Management) systems, to help them better manage the access, storage and sharing of evidence during investigations and prosecutions.
Having access to cameras also makes sense when taking into consideration the plans forces are making for leveraging CCTV further, such as the deployment of facial recognition. The often-polarising subject was one of the standout technologies being discussed at The BAPCO (British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials) Event in Coventry earlier this month. Furthermore, with every uniformed officer in the UK now wearing body-worn video as standard issue, forces have needed to embrace video and video management.
Despite the headlines that the UK has more surveillance cameras per person than most countries, it may come as a surprise to some that there is no obligation for local authorities to provide CCTV, so the shift to police taking custody (if you pardon the pun) of it makes a lot of sense in many respects. However, it is not without its challenges.
The logistics of moving operations from one control room to another (if this is a path chosen) can present technical and operational challenges, ranging from transmission and contractual issues relating to decommissioning, through to training new operators and even changing publicly displayed signage. Furthermore, police forces are far from immune from resource challenges and contending with the inevitable need to invest in upgrading the CCTV network over time, which will certainly be required if they are to take advantage of analytics such as facial recognition. Then there are ongoing costs such as data storage (whether on-premise, in the cloud, or a combination of the two), which can be significant for even a relatively small network.
For local councils and forces looking at how to sustain and improve public space surveillance the best advice is to seek out experience from those who have gone before. There are some good examples, such as the pioneering work announced in 2018 by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Devon and Cornwall, working alongside Cornwall Fire and Rescue and local authorities in both counties, to develop an integrated network of CCTV systems and control rooms. In a more recent project spearheaded by Thames Valley Police, the Thames Valley CCTV Partnership is aiming to deliver improved, sustainable CCTV provision across the region with Slough Borough Council being first to complete the relocation of its CCTV monitoring to the force’s Command Suite in Milton Keynes.
What is clear is that public space surveillance has never been more important than it is today, and Police forces and local councils working with professionals in the security industry to find new approaches that can help keep the cameras on, can only be a good thing. As is the case in so many aspects of life, coming together in the face of adversity can see real progress made.
Author: Senior Security Consultant at Global MSC Security, Andrew Williams
