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UK CCTV regulation

The UK Government has announced the creation of a CCTV Oversight body and interim CCTV regulator.

At the beginning of the year the Home Office announced yet another Government body: The National CCTV Strategy Board. This new Government Oversight Body has been created to focus on:

“the establishment of an Oversight Body, which enables the current National CCTV Strategy Board to become more delivery focused. This will be supported by an Independent Advisory Group and sees the appointment of an interim CCTV Regulator who will be responsible for raising public awareness, defining standards and establish a means to deal with complaints from the public about CCTV.”* David Hanson – The Policing Minister

However, while the briefing covers a lot of ground on targets, regulation, rights, delivery and how to complain: it is extremely woolly on the core things that matter in the deployment and use of CCTV such as operational standards pertaining to key elements such as image size, image quality, compression and frame rate.  The Briefing omitted to mention industry concerns of systems being “fit for purpose” or “future proofing”.  Nor was there any specific mention of actually engaging with CCTV developers and manufacturers regarding the future of CCTV and new technologies such as CCD vs CMOS, megapixel deployment with the need then for improved lighting, Intelligent Video, integration with other systems or key topics such as IP, HD or H.264; or engaging with key industry groups such as ONVIF or the ASC in a broader sense rather than in a limited capacity through sub-committees.

While becoming more delivery and standards focused could be seen as a step in the right direction, it seems the Government is in need of broader and more in-depth expert knowledge to address the key concerns over image quality and the technical direction of the CCTV market as it accelerates towards IP.  This would then allow for influencing the creation of a robust standard or else they face the risk of creating a standard which will be outdate by the time it is issued.  

It would seem that more regulation / standardisation is heading to the CCTV market and I would say that those tasked with this challenge need to look to the future and embrace the new technologies to ensure that CCTV is seen as a key tool in the fight against crime; and ensure that it can meet the requirements not only of today but of the future. Embracing new technologies is also for those that wish to continue to survive and prosper in this marketplace. Four key market research organisations have stated that while CCTV will grow by between 2 – 4 % in 2010 – IP will grow by between 10 – 20% in the same period.