A Brief Glimpse of WA’s CCTV Strategy Guidelines

Technology, ,

Vigilant protection and safety of people should be the main focus of security monitoring perth restaurants install within and around the vicinity of their establishment. That is why Australia’s licensing department might require licensed business premises to use CCTVs in ensuring a secure and safe environment. Moreover, the monitoring system must follow guidelines prescribed under AU’s framework for CCTV Strategy.

Considerations of the Licensing Department in Requiring the Installation of CCTV Cameras

The underlying considerations why licensing requirements might include CCTV installations are when the interest and safety of workers and the general public are highly at stake.

In several ways and in various cases and events, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras have played important roles in the provision of protection and security in licensed business venues by:

1. Posing as deterrents against potential illegal activities of petty criminals like shoplifters and dine-and-dash customers.

2. Providing information that led to speedy identification and subsequent prosecution of criminals. Mainly because their illegal activities were recorded by the establishment’s CCTV monitoring systems.

3. Helping investigators put together pieces of information surrounding chaotic events that led to stampede, crowd crushes or violent fighting between unruly and/or drunk customers or spectators. All of which had resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries.

That being the case, the Western Australian government made the installation of CCTV monitors part of licensing requirements on a case to case basis. Specifically, the requirement is true for commercial venues or events in which 1,000 or more people are expected to arrive and convene.

Guidelines for Ensuring Best Use of CCTVs

In 2015, and in order to ensure the optimised use of CCTV cameras as monitoring and security components, the WA government published the State CCTV Strategy. Since then, this serves as clear guidelines on how to best use CCTV cameras in enhancing the security and safety of WA communities. Actually, during the said year, all AU state governments had implemented frameworks for CCTV installations. The initiative was in line with Australia’s plans for the future use of emerging  advancements in technology.

The core focus of the CCTV strategy was in establishing guidelines for facilitating the sharing of stored CCTV data between a licensed owner and a third party, through the CCTV strategy program.

The licensed owner of the CCTV and his or her authorized manager assume the responsibilities of managing and storing the surveillance images They are therefore the only authorized individuals with whom police authorities and approved officials of the Licensing Department, can coordinate access to the stored CCTV images.

While the purpose of accessing and/or extracting footage is to obtain visuals and images, the process must be carried out in accordance with the current requirements and conditions prescribed by Australian police authorities and by the Licensing Department. Below are examples of salient conditions prescribed by a CCTV Strategy:

Stored footage must be retained in the official monitoring area for at least 28 days; or within the period required by the licensing department.

When the footage images are viewed or extracted by an authorized person, the following must appear on the extracted images:

  • Time and date stamp
  • Camera and camera location identifier
  • Watermark or any mark used to distinguish the image as the original. The purposes of the distinguishing marks are for authentication and tamper-prevention functions.
  • All pertinent information surrounding the incident captured in the footage must be recorded in an Incident Registry maintained by the licensed owner of the CCTV monitoring system.
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