CCTV
Guidance for CCTV and Digital Systems
This document offers guidance to potential users of digital CCTV systems, where the pictures are likely to be used by the police or in an investigation.
Title: UK police requirements for digital CCTV Systems
Author: Home Office & Association of Chief Police Officers
Series: ps08 publication number 09/05
Date published: February 2005
Number of pages: 2
Availability: Download document 
PDF 219Kb
For CCTV recordings to be effective in detecting and investigating crime they must be fit for purpose and easily accessible by police investigators. For digital CCTV there are 4 main areas that must be considered:
Quality - are the pictures good enough?
Storage - are the pictures stored appropriately?
Export - can the pictures be easily exported from the system?
Playback - can the pictures be easily viewed by authorised third parties?
Requirements
In order to ensure the evidential value of pictures, your CCTV system should meet the following requirements:
Quality - Are the pictures good enough?
Before installing a CCTV system you should have a clear idea of what you want the system to do and how it should perform (e.g. recognise the face of someone walking through a doorway, or read a vehicle registration number). More detailed guidance on how to do this can be found in PSDB publication 17/94 CCTV Operational Requirements Manual.
It should not be expected that enhancement features, such as zoom controls, would provide extra detail. If you can't see it then it's not fit for purpose.
You should test the system using a volunteer etc.
The quality of the recorded or printed pictures may differ from the live display.
Ensure the time and date on the system is correct.
The quality of the pictures should not be compromised to allow more to be squeezed onto the system.
Regularly maintain all aspects of the system (e.g. camera focus, cleaning of lenses, etc).
Storage - Are the pictures stored appropriately?
Access to the system and recorded images should be controlled to prevent tampering or unauthorised viewing.
A record should be kept of who has accessed the system and when. Further information on this can be found in the BSI document 'Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility of Information Stored Electronically' (BIP0008) or from your local Crime Prevention Officer.
Physical protection methods such as locked rooms are just as effective as electronic protection methods that require proprietary software or hardware. These can hinder the police's investigation.
It is important that recordings are retained beyond 31 days if possible.
It should be possible to protect specific pictures or sequences, identified as relevant to an investigation, to prevent overwriting before an investigator can view or extract them.
Export - Can the pictures be easily exported from the system?
A trained operator and simple user guide should be available to assist the investigator in replay and export.
Export of medium and large volumes of data can take a substantial period of time. The operator should know the retention period of the system and approximate times to export different amount data.
If the software needed to replay the pictures is not included at export, the police may have trouble viewing it. Export of a system event log or audit trail, and any system settings with the pictures will help establish the integrity of the pictures and system.
The system needs to be capable of exporting small or large amounts of video quickly without losing quality. An ideal solution for medium-to-large downloads, would be for the system to have the facility to export to a 'plug-and-play' hard drive.
The system should not apply any compression to the picture when it is exported as this can reduce the usefulness of the content.
Playback - Can the pictures be easily viewed by authorities?
The replay software must allow the investigator to search the pictures effectively and see all the information contained in the picture and associated with it.
It should be possible to replay exported files immediately e.g. no re-indexing of files or verification checks.
Last update: Wednesday, September 20, 2006