In our most recent Industry Insights Interview, I caught up with Peter Webster, CCTV & Careline Centre Manager at Slough Borough Council and Owner /Director of The CCTV User Group, and discovered the challenges facing video surveillance in the public and ‘pseudo’ public sectors.
With multiple headwinds facing these operations, including funding, out-of-date solutions, and new legislation, what needs to happen to secure the future security of our public spaces?
Introduction to the CCTV User Group – how did the organisation come about and who do they support?
The CCTV User Group was created in the late 1990s to support the growing number of managers in charge of town centre CCTV systems across the UK. This was a very new technology back then and initially there were only a handful of CCTV cameras in each town.
Very quickly, those managers in charge realised that an agreed operational set of rules by which to regulate their CCTV activities would be hugely beneficial.
And so, they organised themselves into The CCTV User Group and created a Code of Practice, which was voluntarily signed up to by the majority of town centre CCTV systems. This was swiftly followed by other documentation to guide operations and system management.
Not surprisingly, the initiative was appreciated by police forces across the UK and the organisation was soon formalised into a limited company, funded by member’s contributions from Local Authorities and police forces.
When Peter took the role of CCTV and Careline Centre Manager at Slough Borough Council in 2004, he was new to the industry and found the CCTV User Group (cctvusergroup.com) to be a well-respected membership organisation and an invaluable source of information and support.
In 2012 the coalition Liberal and Conservative government of the day introduced the Protection of Freedoms Act; this provided a formal set of rules by which Relevant Authorities had to govern & manage public space CCTV. A new role of Surveillance Camera Commissioner was introduced to oversee and advise the Relevant Authorities, namely Local Authorities and Local Government, along with the National Police Forces. The CCTV User Group readily engaged with the new Commissioner alongside other industry professionals and assisted in developing a number of strands of his new UK CCTV strategy.
One of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s roles was also to encourage voluntary adoption of the existing Code of Practice. Tony Porter – the first person appointed by the Home Office into this role - did a good job of encouraging numerous organisations to adopt his new Code of Practice.
These days, as well as supporting town centre CCTV managers, membership includes manned-guarding companies, large housing associations, property management organisations, facilities management companies and universities, among others, along with security distributors and manufacturers, such as Norbain SD.
This provides The CCTV User Group with feedback from a wide cross-section of UK business sectors alongside the public sector perspective. The commonality of interest means members see themselves as ‘business partners’, there to support each other and share feedback.
The CCTV User Group delivers an annual conference & exhibition over two days annually providing excellent networking opportunities for members, the chance to discuss challenges faced, and the opportunity to discover the latest innovations from distributors and manufacturers. In response to Covide restrictions and as a means of supporting Members, the CCTV User Group has also launched a series of short format webinars aimed at informing Members and stimulating debate.
What prompted The CCTV User Group to create NASCAM?
After about seven years of attending the CCTV User Group conferences, Peter became Honorary Chairman and began to get more involved in developing the CCTV User Group along with facilitating answers to members’ concerns.
In 2017, Peter took over ownership of The CCTV User Group with his partner, Evelyne and he realised that the original focus of the organisation was too narrow for what was now needed by security professionals. The CCTV User Group’s original intention was to serve those CCTV centre managers in the public space, mainly working alongside Local Authorities and the Police. But now, with video surveillance cameras prevalent in a huge variety of locations, Peter wanted to better support the needs of private enterprise.
And so NASCAM was born – the National Association of Security Camera Managers. This new organisation will run in parallel with The CCTV User Group for the time being, supporting private sector security professionals or organisations in healthcare, leisure, housing, transport, hospitality and retail sectors.
It will also act as an advisory group to those pseudo public spaces - that is, those places that are open to the public and yet are neither owned nor operated by public authorities.
Pseudo-public spaces are not covered by the SCC’s CCTV Code of Practice. This includes NHS sites, of which there are more than 4,600 nationally, dentists, doctors, outpatient services, pharmacies and so on. It’s the same across Network Rail, Transport For London and the thousands of Highways Agency camera systems. Not to mention 24,800 secondary schools across the UK – all with CCTV operating!
The role of NASCAM will be to support this kind of organisation and encourage them to also comply with the existing Code of Practice and to showcase how to operate & manage CCTV in an ethical manner.
During the course of 2020 with the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown, how did the CCTV User Group adapt? What went well and what challenges were there?
The first knock-on effect of the pandemic for the CCTV User Group was the cancellation of their Annual Spring Conference, due to take place in April 2020. This was postponed to October 2020, then again to April 2021 and is currently eagerly awaited in September 2021. But at least that date seems promising!
However, to continue to serve its members and the community, the Group has taken the opportunity to take its events online, enjoying great success with a series of Snapshot Webinars which have tackled a range of topics including rapid video review, counter terrorism, the government’s proposed Protect Duty legislation, an interview with the former Surveillance Camera Commissioner and the art and science of Super Recognisers.
What do the CCTV User Group and its members see as the biggest challenges of 2021?
After lockdown, Covid restrictions are likely to be in place for some time. This will create an additional workload for all UK CCTV managers in public spaces, once the Night-Time Economy re-opens – pubs, restaurants, clubs etc.
Peter anticipates public spaces becoming busy again in the daytime too, once communities adapt to a ‘new normal’.
At the moment, the role of UK Surveillance Camera Commissioner is vacant and there is no one supporting the government in this remit. The SCC’s role has also been amalgamated with the role of the Biometrics Commissioner, so the new commissioner – once they are appointed – will be dealing with a greatly expanded remit.
One of the tasks facing the new Surveillance Camera Commissioner will be revising the CCTV Code of Practice as that is now overdue for an update. Also, the SCC has never had the power to enforce compliance, so whilst Tony Porter was highly respected, he did not have the authority to force Local Authorities or Police Forces to comply with CCTV regulations and many have yet to apply for and become an accredited operator of PSS CCTV.
And, of course, the members of the CCTV User Group will continue to confront the same challenges faced prior to the pandemic:
Funding
The Government funding settlement with Local Authorities will reduce again in 2021. There will be more pressure than ever before on this funding. And because CCTV is a discretionary service, Local Authorities are not obliged to deliver it. Some town centre CCTV services are already scheduled to close or to operate for fewer hours per day which is of great concern to the CCTV User Group.
However, when you think about the alternatives that councils are trying to keep in place at the same time – such as Adult Social Care and Children’s Services – it is not surprising that this is a complex matter.
At the same time, police force budgets are also being squeezed which presents even greater challenge for public space CCTV because it was hoped that Local Authority CCTV centres would become part funded by police.
This presents The CCTV User Group members with a considerable challenge – raise funds from somewhere or stop providing the service. The ultimate dream of many members is to get this funded directly from council tax, raising the tax by just a few pence per person specifically for the provision of CCTV and safer communities.
Upgrading Obsolete Systems and Redeveloping Existing Solutions
A number of public space CCTV systems are still using equipment from the early 2000s, when it was financed by Home Office grant funding. These systems are now in urgent need of modernisation to upgrade from analogue to digital.
It’s not possible for a CCTV Operator to monitor all the cameras all of the time – Slough has 460 cameras with just two operators on duty 24 hours a day. They also provide Community Alarms and other services out of hours like many of our members do.
There is a huge opportunity for technology to better support each team’s detection capability.
Managing the demands of the Public and Police
The demand on CCTV services from both UK Police Forces and the public is for more and more CCTV cameras to be installed, prioritised by the areas of greatest need. But at the same time, the message is always to ‘do more whilst costing less’.
New Legislation
Back in 2017, Chief Superintendent Nick Aldworth as National Coordinator of Protect and Prepare, Metropolitan Police, National Counter Terrorism Policing HQ, delivered a presentation at the CCTV User Group annual conference titled “Into the Grey Space”. This presentation outlined how terrorists and criminals are specifically identifying vulnerable ‘Pseudo Public Spaces’ as target areas for possible terrorist activity.
These spaces, such as Manchester Arena, London Bridge/Borough Market, Westminster Bridge and Finsbury Park Mosque are public places and yet they are not monitored as a public space might usually be. They are classified as “undefended areas sitting between security protected areas”.
The Manchester Arena Public Enquiry has also identified numerous failings of existing processes and procedures and calls for new legislation has been driven by victim’s families, including Figen Murray, mother of Martyn Hett who was one of the 22 people killed in that tragic bombing.
Figen Murray and Nick Aldworth have created a campaign called “Martyn’s Law” and created model legislation which is based on a five-point plan:
A requirement that certain sections of the community, spaces, and places engage with freely available counterterrorism advice and training.
A requirement for those places to conduct vulnerability assessments of their operating places and spaces.
A requirement for those places to have a mitigation plan for the risks created by the vulnerabilities.
A requirement for those places to have a counterterrorism plan based on Guide, Shelter, Communicate
A requirement for local authorities to plan for the threat of terrorism.
This is likely to lead to additional obligations on Local Authority’s CCTV cameras and therefore an increase in demand and on funding.
This also ties in with the need to upgrade older analogue CCTV systems – newer cameras and surveillance solutions allow for Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning which can help detect terrorists and criminals engaged in Hostile Reconnaissance by analysing their behaviour.
Summary
It is evident that there are a number of challenges facing public space CCTV managers. But video surveillance is a modern phenomenon that we have come to expect and tolerate as we go about our daily lives. With the increasing installation of residential CCTV systems, perhaps it is something the public are now open to funding directly from council tax contributions.
Expectations as a result of recent Public Enquiries into tragic and possibly avoidable events will likely drive calls for improvements in public space surveillance technology, particularly if we can find a way to incorporate private sector co-operation.
More information about The CCTV User Group, including information on this year’s ‘Vision 2021’ Conference & Exhibition in September 2021 can be found on their website.