CCTV end users don't know if systems are compliant: survey | CCTV in Focus CCTV End User Survey

via http://www.info4security.com/story.asp?storycode=4123025
By Anthony Hildebrand

Almost half of CCTV end users don’t know if their system has been installed in line with UK Home Office guidelines. That was the shock result of our survey run in conjunction with CCTV in Focus.

Only 53.6 per cent of respondents to the I4S/CCTV in Focus CCTV End User Survey answered ‘yes’ when asked if they knew their CCTV system to be installed according to Home Office Guidelines.

A massive 32.1 per cent answered either ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’.

Rather more comfortingly, 85.2 per cent of respondents said the performance of their CCTV system met their expectations – while 87 per cent believe they are getting vale for money from their CCTV system.

A whopping 82.5 per cent said ‘no’ when asked if their system was alarm-activated and issued with a police response URN. An additional 10.5 per cent didn’t know, leaving only seven per cent of respondents answering in the affirmative.

Interestingly, two-thirds of those who took the survey said they believed that CCTV systems should be registered. And 83 per cent consider data protection to be an important issue with regard to CCTV systems.

Andy Hays of CCTV in Focus said: “The responses from those that took part in the survey confirm the opinion we formed some time ago at CCTV In Focus. There are just too many CCTV users who don’t have an operational requirement for their CCTV system and if an operational requirement does exist, there does not appear to be any audit process in place to ensure the installed CCTV system delivers against what is in the operational requirement.

“This is confirmed by the fact that 54 per cent of the people who responded to the question said ‘No’ when asked if their CCTV system had been audited since it had been installed and another 13 per cent said ‘Don’t know’.

“Equally alarming is the fact that 46% of respondents either said ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’ to the question, ‘Do you know if your CCTV system has been installed in line with Home Office guidelines?’.”

As part of the survey, CCTV in Focus offered respondents the chance to win £200 worth of Marks and Spencer vouchers. The winner of this prize was Dennis Gotts, security director at Telereal Trillium. Congratulations!

We’ll be running a series of articles in coming days looking at the results of the survey in more detail – so keep coming back to I4S to stay informed.