In Depth

4 CCTV Lessons from the U.K.

What you should consider prior to a wide-scale public CCTV deployment

By Doktor Jon

December 01, 2006 — CSO —

Estimates vary, but with roughly one camera installed per every 14 citizens, the United Kingdom is

now widely regarded as the CCTV capital of the world. Yet, experience suggests that in some respects,

simply copying what's accepted as our best practices can be the worst possible thing. If you're

considering a wide-scale public deployment, consider the following:

Zoning laws can trip you up in court. It might surprise you to know that in the United Kingdom, many

thousands of cameras have been commissioned on the outsides of buildings, in breach of little-known

planning legislation—the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order of

1995, Schedule 2, Part 33—that limits the size, number and placement of allowable surveillance

cameras. That being the case, many current installations are legally classed as unlawful, so in theory

any recordings obtained from them may well be inadmissible in court.

It doesn't always pay to be discreet.

Historically, CCTV systems, particularly larger Public Space and Town Centre schemes, have been

installed primarily as a deterrent to crime. Whilst the theory held up for the first few years, in practice

the wide-scale installation of discreet dome cameras is creating a fundamental failure in many system

designs, which often do not adequately fulfill the requirements of their DISE assessment. DISE refers to

the four essential functions of a CCTV system: Deterrence, Incident Monitoring, Site Management and

Evidential Recording. A DISE assessment indicates the intended purpose of a system, with each of the

four functions being assigned a percentage, which should guide the type of system selected and its

installation.)

Deterrence is often temporary. Recent U.K. government research has finally brought to the fore an

operational problem long known to insiders: Using a technique like CCTV simply to deter criminal

activity works at a fundamental level, but for only a relatively short period. Experience suggests that in

order to ensure a system is working effectively long-term, the designer should ideally adopt a defined

strategy, perhaps based on deterrence through detection, essentially the idea that CCTV should be

designed not just to displace crime but to deter it and catch criminals.

The biggest problem with that in the United Kingdom, though, is that nobody is prepared or necessarily

competent to provide the essential statistical analysis needed to ensure correct system design, meaning

billions of pounds may have been spent on installing politically impressive systems that are

operationally inefficient.

Technique trumps technology. The deterrence issue is part and parcel of the larger question of

technology versus technique. In recent years, the CCTV industry has progressed toward the adoption of

IP-based technology, although admittedly the uptake here in the United Kingdom has been slow, due to

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