The SIA licence for a (contract) CCTV operator does not take enough account of private sector CCTV control rooms, a consultant claims.
Nick Saunders argues that the CCTV operator core competency training covers the needs of a CCTV scheme operated as part of a crime and disorder partnership, but not the needs of a shopping centre or other private sector user. Retailers, already feeling under the cosh and not feeling supported by police, will not take kindly to having to pay for more bureacuracy, he warns. While he is in favour of licences and agrees that there is a need to improve operator training, Nick Saunders queries whether the SIA has taken enough account of the non-public sector (such as shopping centre) CCTV control room. Nick, a former police officer, was consultant to the Trafford shopping centre in Manchester, built between 1996 and 1998 with some 320 CCTV cameras.
He sees a difference in the training required for private and public sector CCTV operators. He says: “In my experience the private sector operators need a greater spread of training, for example, quite often they have to make ‘team’ decisions about powers of arrest, so from the private sector management perspective, training in powers of arrest and criminal offence points to prove is likely to be more important in ensuring the operators and the rest of the security team do not undertake unlawful arrests and leave the management vulnerable to civil actions. Again in the shopping centre industry where the perception of customer care is so important adverse publicity arising from unlawful detentions/arrests is not acceptable, and managers of shopping centres would expect licensed operators to be trained in these aspects.”
He is against in-house staff coming under SIA licensing. He points to the historic, unsucessful efforts by Bruce George MP to bring about legislation for private security regulation. Then there was no suggestion of in-house licensing, only regulation of contract security services, Nick says. Nor does Nick believe that the SIA is asking enough people for their views on CCTV operators; while the CCTV User Group and Public CCTV Managers Association was asked, the SIA did not cast its net beyond the security industry fold to consult retail users, for instance, according to Nick. Retailers already feel a lack of support from police; CCTV operator licences would be one more thing retailers would query the benefit of, Nick claims.
He says: “To put all this into context one of my shopping centre clients monitors a shopping centre CCTV scheme covering a shopping centre, which although public by virtue of its openness to the public is nevertheless private property and the public are invited subject to certain conditions which allow for an exclusion policy to be in force. The centre’s operations room and its operators also monitor on behalf of a local authority the public space town centre CCTV system which covers the other town centre areas outside of the shopping centre. The shopping centre management are part of the local crime and disorder partnership for the purposes of monitoring the town centre aspects but not the centre’s cameras. As a consequence there are two completely different codes of practice, operating procedures, service level agreements, and data protection processing agreements.”
He sees also a possible practical restriction on private sector recruitment of CCTV control room operators: “It is commonplace for operators to be recruited internally from within the security team. This process might typically involve a security officer who may later be considered for promotion to a control room operator to undergo a period of assessment to determine the individual’s aptitude and capability for the work. It might be expected that such an individual might be used to cover breaks and other abstractions, leave and sickness, and later when a vacancy becomes due, subject to satisfactory evaluation they are promoted into the role. This method of recruitment reduces costs considerably and offers the best opportunity for the recruitment of the best available person for the job. At what stage in the process would the individual be expected to receive core competency training and licensing?”
