Safeguards needed for CCTV systems
July 31st, 2007
Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan today announced more funding for community CCTV schemes. Unfortunately these schemes still fail to comply with basic safeguards recommended by the Law Reform Commission nearly ten years in its 1998 Report on Privacy.
Experience in other jurisdictions have shown that CCTV systems are open to abuse. Voyeurism by CCTV operators is common, with even the occasional politician as a victim. One English case shows what can happen:
Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home. Mark Summerton and Kevin Judge, from Sefton Council, Merseyside, trained a street camera into the woman’s flat… The images from the camera, including the woman without her clothes on, were shown on a large plasma screen in the council’s CCTV control room in November 2004, Liverpool Crown Court heard.Over several hours, she was filmed cuddling her boyfriend before undressing, using the toilet, having a bath and watching television dressed only in a towel.
What safeguards are there in Irish law? There is a Department of Justice Code of Practice for Community-Based CCTV Systems, which has a limited statutory basis in section 38 of the Garda Siochana Act 2005. But that Code of Practice, though fine as far as it goes, lacks teeth. The worst that can happen if a Community CCTV scheme flouts the Code of Practice is that its authorisation to operate the system might be taken away. There is no provision for civil or criminal sanctions against operators who abuse the system, leaving victims potentially without any redress.
The Minister for Justice did acknowledge today that safeguards were necessary against the abuse of CCTV systems. We agree. The current Code of Practice should be put on a full statutory basis, enforceable by civil and criminal sanctions.
Entry Filed under: DRI, Mass surveillance, Privacy - General
6 Comments Add your own
1. Eoin | July 31st, 2007 at 8:33 pm
This is the latest in a long line of such announcements made by his predecessor, all equally lacking in safeguards.
2. Jon | August 1st, 2007 at 1:06 pm
It’s probably absolutely no consolation at all, but I’ve yet to come across any country which has any proper regulation of CCTV, which is either appropriate or effective.
Things may well improve longer term, but I somehow doubt that there will be any political will to address this issue within the next three to five years … unless of course events provide an unavoidable catalyst.
3. Administrator | August 2nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
The Drivetime programme on Radio 1 discussed the rollout of CCTV and gave me an opportunity to express our concerns. Audio here: the clip starts at about 49′33″ into the show.
TJ
4. Patrick | August 14th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
“Any person whose image has been recorded has a right to be given a copy of the information recorded. To exercise that right, a person must make an application in writing. A data controller may charge up to €6.35 for responding to such a request and must respond within 40 days”, quote from CCTV Guidlelines on Data Protection Registrar’s site http://www.dataprotection.ie/documents/guidance/CCTV.doc. Maybe, if more of us excercised this right, there would be some disincentive (I suggest that the cost of compliance is likely to exceed the maximum charge) to the proliferation of both public and private CCTV systems.
5. TJ | August 27th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Today’s Last Word show on Today FM revealed another example of possible CCTV abuse – former Lord Mayor of Cork Joe O’Callaghan discussing a Cork pub which has a camera apparently monitoring the urinal area.
6. david mchale | February 27th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Patricks right but even if every one started going in looking for their own image on cctv they would never get it because 95% of all systems have overwritten the data in one month or less, and you cannot give, say Patrick a copy of himself in a shopping centre with anyone else in the pictures, in other words it would have to be him alone and this would be rare in any public area.
So dont waste your time or euros trying it.
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