How to Use CCTV Evidence in Court

The storage, retrieval and use of CCTV footage is subject to data protection laws and guided by the Surveillance Code of Practice.

In the video below Scotland Yard CCTV specialist Richard Beckley outlines the six principles that ensure compliance – and ultimately help prosecutors to secure convictions – when gathering CCTV evidence for use in court.

Having trawled thousands of hours of footage following the 2011 London riots for the London Met, Richard can certainly claim some authority on the subject.

Richard Beckley, who develops and delivers training in New Scotland Yard’s central forensic image team, will deliver a presentation on this topic on Tuesday 21 June (13:10-13:40) at IFSEC International 2016. Register here to attend IFSEC 2016 and browse the full programme for the Tavcom Training Theatre.

Watch Richard’s interview below or read the transcript beneath.

“My role is designing and delivering training to our staff and it’s our staff throughout the Metropolitan Police boroughs who deal with this huge volume of crime data from video surveillance systems, and that data is used in court cases and identifying unknown suspects.

“So the big question for me – and this is what I’ll be talking about at IFSEC International 2016 – is how do we ensure competency among our staff to make sure they get it right when they go out and retrieve and process CCTV evidence for court cases? I’ve identified six elements that are extremely important and they need to all come together to ensure we get competency when retrieving CCTV.

“The first is quality and training of staff. We need to have staff who can go out there and retrieve evidence from DVRs according to Home Office scientific branch guidelines and that falls within APCO digital guidelines, who are fully aware of the dangers of retrieving CCTV and the potential for losing evidence.

“It’s all very well to have cameras that are well placed; we need systems that are professionally installed and we need to have adherence to the operational requirement of any systems.

“However, we also need to utilise human beings. A case in point within the Metropolitan Police is the super recognisers who have been hugely successful in identifying unknown suspects.

“Compliance with legislation and the codes of practice is equally important. The public have a huge expectation that we will abide by the rules – and those rules are there for a reason.

“The Surveillance Commissioner, Tony Porter [who is also speaking at IFSEC 2016], has outlined how the public has to support CCTV and the process has to be open to scrutiny and transparent, and this is something we have to bear in mind when dealing with CCTV.

“Another factor is relationships with partners.  Our partners are absolutely vital to us. A bugbear of the industry is that they often provide CCTV to the police and they never get any feedback so we have to ensure we provide that feedback.

“Finally, we have to keep up with innovation. Innovation is critical and that’s why we attend conferences like IFSEC so we can see what’s out there, so we use the very best technology to catch criminals.

“I hope you can join me at my talk at IFSEC 2016 – thank you.”

Richard Beckley will present ‘CCTV: The ingredients for evidence gathering’ on Tuesday 21 June, 13:10-13:40, in the Tavcom Training Theatre (sponsored by BT Redcare) at IFSEC International 2016.

IFSEC International 2016 will run from 21-23 June at ExCeL London.

Register here to attend IFSEC 2016.

Browse the full programme for the Tavcom Training Theatre.

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