When Do You Need To Supply CCTV Recordings To Other People?

Whilst the purpose of CCTV installations can vary, one of its primary uses is in the prevention of crime and to aid in the prosecution of people who commit crimes on your property.

Alongside ensuring that your CCTV system and how it is used is in keeping with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), particularly that there is a lawful basis and legitimate basis for its use, particularly when used in buildings that are open to the general public.

The balance between using CCTV for protection, security, monitoring and other legal bases, and the reasonable expectation of privacy people are likely to have when they are in your home or place of business, is compounded by the requirement to supply recordings to other people or groups.

When are you most likely to need to supply CCTV recordings to others, and on what basis can this footage be requested?

Can Someone Captured On CCTV Request Footage Of Themselves?

Yes, anyone who has been captured in CCTV footage has three main data protection rights according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

• The right to request footage taken of themselves
• The right to have the footage erased, unless there is a legitimate necessity to do so
• The right to object to being filmed, unless there is a strong reason to do so or the objection is deemed ‘excessive’

The request must be made by the person who was filmed and must be provided free of charge within a month if they have it, which is typically the case since most modern CCTV systems operate on a 30-day deletion cycle.

The owner of the CCTV system may not always be able to provide footage, or may request you come to view it yourself if they cannot provide a copy.

In general, there are two main reasons why requests for CCTV footage can be rejected:

• Other people are in the footage, and they cannot be edited or blurred out sufficiently to protect their identity.
• If the footage is subject to an ongoing criminal investigation, sharing the footage could risk negatively affecting it.

When Must You Provide CCTV Footage To The Police?

On the subject of criminal investigations, CCTV footage is commonly requested by the police as part of evidence gathering for a criminal investigation, and owners must comply with a lawful request to do so.

Typically, a police force will have a standard operating procedure when it comes to investigations involving CCTV, where a police force will make a formal request, offering a badge number, crime reference number and the date and time ranges for which they need said footage.

In most cases, owners of a CCTV system will generally provide the footage in good faith as long as the request is legitimate. Usually this involves sending footage securely to the police but may include a request to view the footage whilst on site.

However, if the owner does not cooperate, they can be compelled to do so with a court production order or the use of statutory powers in certain cases under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.