CCTV systems across the country may prove to be little or no help in catching and convicting criminals due to the invalidity of recorded data, it is claimed.
The problem lies within the re-use of video cassettes ? while it is deemed acceptable by the law to re-use tapes, it is critical that those tapes are firstly ?cleaned? or erased to remove previous recordings. This detail is rarely considered in CCTV practice and few operators actually have the equipment to quickly and effectively remove data.
Simon Edgar, CCTV specialist at Checkpoint said: ?Since the introduction of the Data Protection Act in March 2000 most organisations have become very hot on the issues of storage and availability of CCTV data, and one of the ways businesses now ensure that they are complying with the act is through a tape rotation system. This methodology is good practice, but it is critical that the data controller ensures tapes are ?cleansed? to remove all existing data before being re-used. Failure to do this is likely to render the whole system useless, as the quality of the video evidence may not be sufficient to hold weight in a court of law.?
In 1994, the Home Office issued a statement saying that simply recording over old material is not satisfactory practice, not least because this compromises a tape?s acceptability for evidential purposes. This statement along with the newer Data Protection Act means that bulk erasing is an important part of CCTV practice, but there is still only a minority of data controllers putting it into action. A major reason for the failure of businesses to participate in bulk erasing has been due to the lack of technology. Generally, solutions are very slow and cumbersome and subject to human error.
Checkpoint Meto, with NG Systems, has designed and launched a new bulk tape eraser to facilitate best practice. The Clean Genie, as the product is called, is a small, wall-mounted mechanism, which is fully automatic and automated. This means that the tape is always completely erased without any operator involvement, eliminating the element of doubt associated with manual machines. As soon as the used tape is inserted, the Clean Genie automatically erases all information from the tape with ten seconds.
Gar Ning at NG Systems said: ?The Clean Genie is a logical solution to a straightforward problem and we have found that Data Controllers have been very impressed with its speed and simplicity. The advantages of using a CCTV system are immense, but without the necessary management it is all too easy for the benefits to fall by the wayside. We are working to ensure that the maintenance of CCTV systems is kept as easy as possible.?
