This is a major problem for shopping centres and hospitals, for example, where some cameras partly view areas just outside of the premises. These stations are, therefore, no longer providing the security coverage for which they were established.
Other centres – particularly those using outside contractors’ operators – have put their systems into record-only mode, while some local authorities have shut down such centres entirely rather than risk being accused of operating them illegally.
We are totally in favour of licensing operators in these monitoring stations, but the SIA should have made the requirement clear last year and not waited until a few weeks before the 20 March deadline.
Peter Fry Director CCTV User Group