Picture the scene. It’s 2.00 am in the very heart of London. The street is beginning to fill up with people who’ve just left a popular nightclub. There are several groups of congregating clubbers, some large, some small, and one or two individuals standing chatting. Many of the revellers are intoxicated, noisy and gesticulating to those around them. Some, on the other hand, are sober. All they want to do is find a taxi and go home.
Suddenly, the ‘group dynamics’ begin to change. People are looking agitated. A loose bunch of individuals join forces and, all of a sudden, there’s a major incident taking place. That incident starts and finishes in what seems like seconds. There’s a fight, with serious injuries the end result. A firearm is used. A life is lost. Not surprisingly, people react to what’s happening. Some run away. Others are unable to do so due to their injuries or an involvement in the incident in question. Several decide to stick around and watch the aftermath out of some voyeuristic fascination.
Unfortunately, major incidents like this in cities across the country are becoming more and more prevalent. That being the case, can we in the security profession – and, in particular, CCTV practitioners – do anything to strike back? In the first instance, we need to ask a fundamental question: “How will the CCTV operators observing the incident react, and what should they be doing?”
Every second counts… Literally
The first few minutes of any major incident are vital. The inactions – or inactivity – of CCTV operators could mean the difference between someone being convicted of a crime or simply being allowed to walk away. Clearly, much depends on the early training and experience of the CCTV operator.
Over the past decade we’ve witnessed major developments in surveillance technology, but are we – as the end users of that technology – really keeping pace with the skills set that we need to action the operation and management role to its fullest potential? In some cases, millions of pounds’ worth of CCTV equipment is being watched as if it were a film at the cinema, simply because Control Room operators are unable to recognise the build-up to situations that unfold before their very eyes.
While some operators may have a decent grasp of the mechanics involved with CCTV systems, many are unable to use them to their best ability in as much as they cannot ‘read’ a situation and make the important decision in relation to what should happen next. As the security profession is brought increasingly under the Wider Police Family ‘umbrella’, how might we prepare our staff for a more proactive role in CCTV that assists the police service? In a nutshell, what skills set should be the preserve of today’s surveillance system operators?
CCTV can really come into its own when dealing with a murder, a serious assault or some other major incident. CCTV operators might use cameras in a ‘virtual cordon’, recording all people and vehicles at – or near – the scene before there is any opportunity for them to disperse and prior to the arrival of the emergency services.
Following a major incident, members of the public in some communities are sometimes reluctant to come forward as witnesses. Unless we identify those witnesses at the earliest possible juncture, they may never be known to us. CCTV can assist in their ‘capture’, most notably when they leave the scene in a vehicle.
CCTV as a ‘forensic tool’
There’s also a ‘forensic tool’-style role for cameras in ‘virtual fingertip searches’. Appropriately sited, they can be used to scan the pavements and the area surrounding a given incident with the aim of identifying potential evidence. Quite often, before a unit from the forensic science service or division arrives on scene, many feet have already trampled over the area. With careful use, our cameras can collect images – and, by association, important evidence – of the crime scene that may otherwise be lost.
Of course we’re not reinventing the wheel here. This isn’t a new use for CCTV. Many town centre Control Room managers are already teaching their members of staff these basic skills. Indeed, they’ve had some excellent results by dint of working closely with the police service in gathering evidence following major incidents.
What, though, are the basic skills we need to be teaching our CCTV operators? First, we need to entice them into thinking about body language. Watching something as simple as a handshake between two people, combined with their use of personal space, may tell us how well the people know each other and a little about the culture of where they grew up.
Linking body language with crime
We need to teach operators about the cultural aspects of body language, as this dimension is often of vital importance. In most major cities across the UK we have a diversity of cultures and, although research shows that the influence of western films is having an impact on other cultures’ body language, differences are going to remain apparent.
Within the scope of this article it’s not possible to detail every facet or nuance about cultural body language and the use of personal space. However, this is a subject about which CCTV operators must have more than just a passing knowledge in their armoury. Body language can tell us a good deal about the individuals being monitored.
If the focus of our role – no pun intended – lies within a high crime area, while we will indeed require knowledge and the necessary skills to recognise different forms of body language, there’s also a defined need to teach our CCTV operators to link that physical language with crime and criminal activity. The aim? If possible, to spot crime and criminality before it even happens.
CCTV is often lauded as a panacea for all street crime. Let me tell you that it isn’t. However, surveillance systems can be used as a highly effective tool in recognising criminal behaviour before the crime occurs. Prior to carrying out their crimes, many criminals can exhibit displacement or nervous behaviour. It’s human nature. This offers CCTV operators a tremendous opportunity to spot them in a crowd. That said, we need to know what type of crime is committed in certain locations, and how those crimes are perpetrated.
There are recognisable ‘hot spots’. By way of example, since the change in the Gambling Act, betting shops are now permitted to remain open until 9.30 pm. Not surprisingly, they have fast become a target for robbery in the evening. While we may be able to pick out displacement behaviour exhibited by criminals prior to an act of criminality taking place, there’s also a need to look a little further back in time.
Looking for hostile reconnaissance
We should be looking out for hostile reconnaissance, as some criminals do their homework and carry out a ‘scoping study’ of the given target at the same time and on the same day one week prior to the crime.
Terrorists may do the same thing. People exiting Underground train stations, theatres and cinemas often reach for their mobile telephones. If their behaviour is furtive, CCTV operators might consider them to be suspect and then appropriate checks may be initiated.
Often, we’ll hear about ‘shoulder surfing’ at ATMs, but some CCTV operators have little – if any – experience of how the crime is committed. At the Centre for Training Excellence, we not only show our students CCTV images of this crime being committed, but we also conduct role play exercises to mirror the actions of thieves and victims alike. Students are then able to identify the criminal behaviours they should be attempting to spot. Certainly, our students leave the Centre of Training Excellence with more than just a theory of crime and criminality.
There are many areas for consideration, but the main point is to make sure our CCTV operators are asking themselves the ‘If’ question: “If I were a criminal committing a certain type of crime, what would I be doing?” What would the criminal be looking for? Following on from this, if our CCTV operator spots someone in the right – or wrong – circumstances, they can occasionally carry out a simple exercise.
What’s the bottom line?
We teach operators to associate people they are monitoring with potential illegal activity. It’s an exercise wherein they ask themselves questions in relation to the possible crimes that may potentially be committed in the circumstances. This then directs their normally reactive behaviour towards a proactive process of spotting crime before it propagates.
If we teach our CCTV operators more than the basic theories, I’m sure that they’ll be seen by one and all as an integral and professional ‘division’ of the Wider Police Family rather than just a bunch of “amateurish film watchers”.
