A to Z of services: CCTV procedure for the release of evidence

HBC - CCTV

Most uses of CCTV will be covered by the Data Protection Act. This gives you the right to see information held about you, including CCTV images of you, or images which give away information about you. The Data Protection Act sets rules which CCTV operators must follow when they gather, store and release CCTV images of individuals. The Information Commissioner can enforce these rules. The Information Commissioner's Code of practice can be found at the following link:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/ico_cctvfinal_2301.pdf

What you can expect

• The Council must let people know they are using CCTV. Signs are the most usual way of doing this. The signs must be clearly visible and readable, and should include the details of the organisation operating the system if not obvious.
• Conversations between members of the public are not recorded on CCTV.

Disclosure of pictures

• You have the right to see CCTV images of you and to ask for a copy of them. The Council must provide them within 40 calendar days of your request, and you may be asked to pay a fee of up to £10 (this is the maximum charge, set by Parliament). This is called a Subject Access Request. You will need to provide details to help us establish your identity as the person in the pictures, and to help us find the images on our system.
• CCTV operators are not allowed to disclose images of identifiable people to the media - or to put them on the internet - for entertainment. Images released to the media to help identify a person are usually disclosed by the police.
• An organisation may need to disclose CCTV images for legal reasons - for example, crime detection. Once they have given the images to another organisation, then that organisation must adhere to the Data Protection Act in their handling of the images.
• The Council is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This Act allows members of the public to request official information by writing to us (see below). The Council will respond within the statutory 20 working day deadline. If the images are those of the person making the request, then the request would be handled under the Data Protection Act as a Subject Access Request. If, however, other people are identifiable in the CCTV pictures, then the images would be considered personal information and it is likely they would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Retention of pictures

Images are retained for as long as necessary to meet the purpose of recording them. Unless required for legal proceedings, police investigations, detection of crime, the Council will keep the recordings for 28 days following which they will be overwritten.

Requesting CCTV

A request for individual disclosure of personal data, which is believed to have been recorded by virtue of the system, should be addressed to:

Hartlepool Borough Council

Legal Division

Civic Centre

Victoria Road

Hartlepool

TS26 9AY

Hartlepool Borough Council's CCTV system is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and follows the Information Commissioner's CCTV Code of Practice.

The Council's CCTV Strategy can also be found at:

http://www.saferhartlepool.co.uk/downloadstore/cctvstrategy.doc