Agenda item

This report updates the Committee on the work and progress of the Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) service, and details on the work and progress of the borough’s £5.4m capital investment programme for CCTV with a view to completing the work at the end of 2025/26.

It also provides the Committee with the opportunity to scrutinise the Council’s conduct in relation to directed surveillance, covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and Council policy.

CCTV updates

Neil Thurlow (Director of Public Protection) introduced the report. He outlined the progress of the Council’s £5.4m investment into CCTV upgrade programme which was at its midterm point (running from April 2022 to March 2026).  Under the programme, the ageing infrastructure across the network would be replaced and a number of cameras replaced and upgraded to assist in tackling crimes and anti-social behaviour (ASB). He added that the programme was progressing well.

Neil Thurlow said that Jayne Bacon, the Programme Lead for the CCTV Upgrade was intrinsic to the delivery of this complex work programme highlighting key elements of delivery such as replacing of the infrastructure, replacing and laying new underground cables (in excess of one mile in length at times) as well as upgrading technology with the new system. 

Neil noted that the upgrade would also support the LET with officers’ body worn cameras and its CCTV van being included as part of the upgrade which, together with other deployable cameras, allowed streaming of images from the CCTV van assigned to the areas of most need. Neil also took the opportunity to welcome Adrian Rutkowski, the CCTV Manager, who was also giving a lot of support to the upgrading work.

Neil Thurlow referred to the stated priorities in using the CCTV system (page 11) and highlighted the key outcomes of the service for the last two years. Over 1,500 arrests had been made with 535 over the last 12 months allowing the Police to take offenders off the street. Neil further noted the service ran a traded offer with two neighbouring boroughs, the Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC).  The service launched for WCC the day before was covered by ITV. It was hoped that the service would continue to build on its successes and reputation with a view to receiving further interests.

Councillor Lucy Richardson asked about the ownership and storage of the CCTV data. Neil Thurlow advised that the data were owned by the respective councils (i.e. H&F, WCC or RBKC) or businesses having direct access into the control room and vice versa.  All footages from these data sources coming through the control room located in H&F would be retained for 30 days and automatically deleted according to the retention policy if no enforcement activity was required.

As regards the communication with the Police in utilising the footages to tackle crimes, Neil Thurlow said that officers at the control room had direct contact with the Police through the Met Police radio. Once a crime was detected, the CCTV control room officers would call and/or send the footage to the MET control room.  The two sides would then work together in locating the victims and tracking down the suspects through the police radios and the live images patched to the Police from CCTV. After the CCTV upgrade, the LET could share the footages with the Police digitally through a system with digital stamps similar to Dropbox instead of downloading them onto a disk for signing out/off.

Neil Thurlow highlighted the strong working relationship with the Police and their positive feedback on CCTV officers’ communication skills and responsiveness. An example of the support of the Police in tackling crimes was given via the sharing of a month’s CCTV data in and around the area of the recent tragic double homicide in the borough.  In response to Councillor Richardson’s further enquiry, Neil noted that after bringing WCC on board, the minimum staffing per shift at the control room, excluding the management presence, had increased from two to three officers who worked around the clock all year round. .

Highlighting the benefit of the exclusive access in using DVD disks, Councillor Omid Miri was concerned about accessing the digital link and the Dropbox-like system. Jayne Bacon (Programme Lead, CCTV Upgrade) reassured that an “evidence locker” was used to capture the footage for safe sharing and this system, which was only accessible to named officers within a time limit, ensured that there was a full audit process and accountability process in place. All access and watermarked downloading were recorded and hence auditable.

Given H&F had the highest number of cameras per head of population, Councillor Miri asked about the average number of officers working at the control room during the office hours, and the division of labour among the partnership. 

Outlining the layout of the control room, Neil Thurlow said that in addition to the CCTV Manager, the usual staffing at the control room would be three to six officers with three being the new minimum when CCTV staffing was at full strength.  These officers had been highly trained and experienced. Neil noted that the CCTV officers knew very well the problematic areas and the key times for when an incident might occur. These officers  would impart local knowledge to officers who were new to the CCTV control room. As such, there was no inflexible  designation to any borough but, noting that there were close to 2500 cameras across the three boroughs now officers were assigned to focus primarily on one but, should an incident occur, officers were assigned based on risk and need.Neil remarked that it was imperative to deploy all asset to address the issue of public safety which was CCTV’s core remit at the times of heightened need. 

On benefits of the partnership, Neil Thurlow noted that the contract sums paid by the WCC and RBKC for the H&F service shall help relieve some of the pressures on the Council’s general fund. There were also shared objectives and benefits among the three partnered councils which were under the same basic command unit (BCU) of the Police.  Neil then elaborated on the roll out of the 100 wireless deployable cameras mainly for WCC and expected to see more multi-faceted benefits over the next 6 to 12 months.

Councillor Sally Taylor expressed concern about officers’ well-being under these stressful postings. She asked how officers were being looked after having witnessed something dreadful. Adrian Rutkowski (CCTV Manager) stressed that if officers were emotionally affected or feeling disturbed after seeing the footages, they could seek help from the Employee Assistance programmes or communicate with the management which might deal with the particular needs of the operating officers on a case-by-case basis.

The Chair noted on several occasions that some of the CCTV cameras were not operational. Jayne Bacon explained that the current CCTV upgrade mainly sought to replace the old infrastructure which had been failing and causing the mentioned challenges. The power issues had also affected camera operation. After the upgrade, the number of faulty cameras should be greatly reduced. When the cameras were down, the new system could track the location and flag them for fixing by the engineers.  Jayne added that when the power had gone off somewhere, the uninterruptible power supply shall come to support the network for up to 4 hours during which the new system would send alerts to enable problem shooting and resolution.

On the progress of the upgrading work raised by the Chair, Jayne Bacon noted the original plan was to start the programme in Hammersmith, then moved to Shepherds Bush followed by Fulham. However, because of the challenges of the old network becoming more problematic in another area, a decision was made to move the focus. This saw Shepherds Bush upgrade completed first (this was now completed), then the upgrade moved to Hammersmith, where work was almost completed with upgrade work moving to Fulham later this financial year.

Regarding residents’ request for installing cameras in a specific area, Neil Thurlow advised that the community safety officer for that area would review the request in consultation with the Safe Neighbourhood team, LET and ASB teams. If there was a pattern of issues, consideration would be given to allocating one of the deployable cameras for temporary installation at that area for a maximum of 6 months.  Normally, it took 4 to 6 weeks to install the camera.

Councillor Miri highlighted the deterrence function of CCTV which was probably in residents’ mind when they made the request for camera installation.  Adrian Rutkowski responded that in addition to deterrence, there was also displacement.  Both happened regularly when a new camera was introduced to an area.  They were measured by looking at the changes in the rates of crime and ASB to determine whether the deterrent had worked, or it just displaced the issue elsewhere.

Noting the claim that there was not a single incident of drug dealing for 6 months since the installation of CCTV camera in a specific area, Councillor Miri was concerned about the thorough review of the footages. Adrian Rutkowski said officers also relied on the advice of residents, councillors, community safety officers and LET officers for a clear picture of the issue before deciding to review the footages for any irregularities.  Neil Thurlow added that after the system upgrade, officers could also rely on the help of the built-in AI to locate a certain person by describing their characteristics.

Councillor Miri was concerned about the ethical standards in deploying AI or similar technology.  He asked in addition to using it for recorded clips, whether AI would be utilised for the live footages. Neil Thurlow stressed that AI would be deployed in the highest ethical standards and in regard to all relevant legislation.

In response to the Chair’s enquiry about using live facial recognition (LFR) technology, Neil Thurlow noted that it was not being used in H&F’s CCTV system.  The Police had used LFR in Hammersmith Broadway the weekend before last and arrested within a few hours a dozen offenders on the watchlist.  It was believed the Police would use the technology going forward to track down high-harm offenders of violence and sex.  The Chair agreed with Councillor Richardson’s suggestion of discussing with the Police on the use of LFR at a future meeting.

ACTION: Neil Thurlow

Noting that some 45 businesses within the Hammersmith BID area had direct access to the control room, the Chair sought elaboration on the operation and asked if it also involved the Charing Cross Hospital.   Neil Thurlow gave an account of the contact between the businesses’ security guards and control room through the BID radio. When an issue was reported, control room officers would help track the suspect and call the Police if necessary. Neil undertook to provide information in respect of the Charing Cross Hospital.

NOTE: Updated information has been provided

On Councillor Taylor’s concern about frequent shoplifting on the North End Road, Neil Thurlow noted that the businesses on that road were not part of the Hammersmith BID. He understood that the new government was putting more pressure on the Police to lower the past threshold of police intervention of £550. Neil said while the Council was helping people to tide over the cost-of-living crisis, officers would pass the footages to the Police should they identify repeated offenders of theft. If the shops on North End Road called them for assistance. CCTV officers might help to check the footage and take further action as appropriate.

Annual Report on the Regulatory Investigation Powers Act (RIPA)

Mo Basith (LET Manager) introduced the annual report which provided an oversight of the Council’s work in regard to RIPA. He briefed members on the previous inspections in April 2020 and August 2023 as well as their outcomes, and outlined the Council’s use of the powers (paragraph 44) from May 2023 to June 2024:

• Direct surveillance
• Non-RIPA Surveillance
• Communications Data

He also noted that there were no breaches in respect of the new statutory error reporting requirements for RIPA.

Responding to the Chair’s question about the next inspection, Mo Basith noted that in addition to H&F annual returns, the investigatory powers commissioner’s office (IPCO) had conducted in-person inspection about once every three years since 2020. The IPCO was pleased with the regime that H&F had put in place.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.