Reader Roger Sears asked: Can CCTV storage be kept for longer than 31 days, if so can this info be used in a court of law for evidence?
The CCTV Doctor responds: According to the document “CCTV code of practice 2008” (UK Government Information Commissioner’s Office), section 8.3 clearly states that the Data protection Act “does not prescribe any specific minimum or maximum retention periods which apply to all systems or footage. Rather, retention should reflect the organisation’s own purposes for recording images”.
The document also recommends that you should “not keep images for longer than strictly necessary to meet your own purposes for recording them.”
This means that as part of good CCTV practice, the system specification and outline should determine the number of days that images will be retained, and that the organisation should keep to that specification at all times, with all members of staff aware of the retention times laid down by the organisation.
Additional Data Protection Act information for CCTV:
– It does not apply to an individual’s private or household purposes (e.g. recording to prevent/ identify burglary)
– CCTV systems must not be used to record conversations between members of the public, as this is considered a deep invasion of privacy.
