East Suffolk Council
CCTV
CCTV is vital in the prevention and detection of crime and antisocial behaviour. It provides residents and businesses with protection, helping us to make East Suffolk a safer place to live, work, socialise and visit.
East Suffolk Council collaborates with East Suffolk Services Ltd, who are contracted to monitor, record, and manage CCTV operations.
Control room and camera locations
The control room monitors Lowestoft 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A large percentage of the cameras are Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) and can be controlled by the operator using a joystick and keypad. If cameras are not PTZ, they will be static and fixed in a position where there are high levels of crime or positioned for the protection of assets.
Suffolk Police have contact through live-link sharing of camera footage and police radio communications, town centre retail premises, public houses, and local pastors communicate via the Lowestoft Vision Radio Scheme. This collaborative effort ensures a unified approach to public safety.
There are unmanned but recording cameras in Felixstowe and the operational depot in Ufford.
No camera will be hidden from view and will be prevented from directly focussing upon frontages or rear areas of private accommodation.
Please note the council does not have access to every CCTV camera, some are owned by traffic management, maritime services and private businesses.
Expertise
The CCTV operators are vetted at NPPV2 level (Non-Police Personnel Vetting) to operate the police airwaves and hold a SIA Licence which allow them to operate a CCTV camera for public space surveillance (PSS). The training standards for these licences are set and governed by the Security Industry Authority who are the issuing authority of all CCTV operator licences.
Purpose of CCTV
CCTV systems are registered with the Information Commissioner. Their purpose can be broadly described as:
- To help reduce the fear of crime
- The help deter crime
- To help detect crime and provide evidential material for court proceedings
- To assist in the overall management of Lowestoft in the CCTV monitored areas
- To assist in the promotion of community safety
- To reduce antisocial behaviour
- To assist the Local Authority in its enforcement and regulatory functions
- To assist in Traffic Management
- To assist in supporting civil proceedings which will help detect crime
- To assist in the protection of assets
Management of CCTV records
All video data is recorded onto digital hard drives and kept for a maximum of 31 days, which is then automatically overwritten. During this period, the police or other statutory prosecuting or investigative agencies may apply for access to these images for investigatory purposes.
Still images obtained from the recorded data are only produced to help identify persons or property for specific incidents, or other permitted data uses, and are subject to the same security of data and destruction rules when no longer required by the data requester as recorded video data.
Code of practice
In 2021, a new Surveillance Camera Code of Practice was published by the Home Office. This aims to create a more transparent, proportionate and accountable CCTV system.
We work to comply with these practices and have conducted privacy impact assessments to outline precisely what the system entails and for what it is being used. This is to allow transparency, proportionality and accountability as outlined in the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.
Data subject access request
You have the right to request CCTV footage of yourself under Article 15 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). You have a right to be provided with images of yourself, if we hold them, but not of any third parties. Footage is only stored for a maximum of 31 days. You can make a request to have a copy of CCTV of your own images by completing a Subject Access Request form. To help us to identify the footage you require, please ensure you provide the following information, where applicable:
- The date and time of the requested footage
- The precise location of the requested footage
- A description of yourself to aid the CCTV operators to locate footage of you
- Any further descriptive details you feel are relevant to your application
CCTV request for insurance or legal purposes
CCTV footage following a subject access request where third party individuals can be identified will not be released unless those parties have consented to the disclosure.
We may also refuse to provide footage to you whereby doing so would be likely to prejudice:
- The prevention and detection of crime
- Apprehension and prosecution of offenders
If no data is held regarding your request, or the data falls into a category exempted from disclosure, you will be notified.
If you have:
- Been the victim of a crime
- Been involved in a road traffic collision or
- Are an insurance company or legal representative
We are unable to accept subject access requests in these instances because we will only be able to provide you with images of yourself and not third parties.
If you have been the victim of a crime, or it is a crime-related incident, you should report the matter to the police by calling either 999 in an emergency or 101 in a non-emergency. The police can make a request direct to us to view the footage and, if held, it will be provided to the investigating officer.
Please note that we cannot provide CCTV footage to you in relation to an investigation that is taking place by the police; you should make your request directly to the police.
Complaints
For any complaints or concerns in relation to the CCTV service please contact us.