Pack of Eyes

You are being watched. Do you care? And does it matter? More than 500 public CCTV cameras, and probably many more private cameras, are in operation in Wellington. John Bishop talks to the people sitting behind them.

Walk from the corner of Willis and Manners Streets to Courtenay Place and you’ll be seen at least nine times on the Wellington City Council’s cameras.

Dodge into Dixon Street and there are another three cameras there; another three are up Cuba Street. In total there are 34 counciloperated cameras, which are intended to make inner Wellington safer by monitoring what’s happening on the streets and helping police to take appropriate action.

The council owns the cameras and shares the pictures in a live stream with the police, where volunteers (suitably vetted and trained) monitor the screens for indications of possibly criminal behaviour or actions that place anyone at risk.

There are hundreds more cameras in business premises looking out onto the streets, and in alleyways and nooks immediately outside offices, shops, apartments and the like – all in the name of protecting property, by deterring and detecting offenders.

If you loiter or linger, cuddle or canoodle, fall asleep or vomit in a doorway, chances are you will be seen and recorded.

Just how many private cameras are operating in Wellington isn’t known, because permission to operate one isn’t needed, although all operators are required to comply with the Privacy Act.

Just how much protection this legislation provides is questionable because it’s hard to know what happens to the footage.

In December 2019 the New Zealand Herald reported 567 public CCTV cameras in Wellington, many of them operated by the government’s Transport Agency. By comparison Auckland had 5,486 cameras, of which 54 percent were operated by Auckland Transport.

And that’s still not counting the cameras which operate inside shops supposedly to prevent shoplifting and the like.

It’s part of the surveillance society; cameras are everywhere and there seems little we can do about it unless we shop only online, socialise only in our own dwellings, and don’t go out in the inner city at night. Righto!

Nicola Moreham is a Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in media and privacy issues. Her concern is that CCTV is part of a movement over many years – the encroachment of cameras and other forms of surveillance into all aspects of our lives. ‘You simply can’t avoid CCTV in most cities in the UK.’

She is more concerned about surveillance by private entities than by government bodies because it is more difficult to know what footage from them is accessed and what use is made of it.

Annabel Fordham, the Public Affairs Manager at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, herself a lawyer, explains that parties operating cameras are obliged to comply with the main principles of the Privacy Act, which includes disclosing that CCTV cameras are operating. Visible signage saying so is sufficient.

‘Cameras – concealed or not – have to be used for a legitimate purpose. Security and preventing shoplifting are clearly legitimate but you can’t splash footage of people trying on clothes on Facebook.

‘Equally if you tell customers that you are collecting information for a business purpose you can’t then share the footage for laughs.

‘You also have to collect information in a fair way which generally means that cameras should not be hidden although that can be legitimate. For example, if a shop owner suspects a staff member is stealing it would be lawful to position a hidden camera over the till to detect offending.

Complaints about CCTV don’t rank particularly highly, although in its biennial survey, conducted by UMR Research, the Privacy Commission found a general concern about the rising tide of surveillance.

The 2018 survey found the number of people concerned about their individual privacy had risen slightly to 67 percent, up two percent from the last survey held in 2016.

However only 36 percent were concerned about the use of CCTV by individuals; the use of drones in residential areas concerned 62 percent, making the CCTV the issue of least concern in 2018.

Sergeant Hamish McKnight is part of the City Community team at Wellington Central Police Station in Victoria Street. He oversees the monitoring of the CCTV cameras that cover some of the inner city trouble spots, such as Cuba Street from Wakefield to Ghuznee street, Victoria Street, and Manners Street to Cambridge Terrace.

The council records the pictures; the police do not. The council holds the pictures for a month and then wipes them. The police have a month to request any footage they might want to see and retain. The council meets their requests promptly.

For the council the purpose is to make Wellington, particularly central Wellington, a safer place.

For the police, the cameras are ‘another tool in crime prevention and detection,’ says Sergeant McKnight.

The volunteers are trained to spot individuals ‘at risk’, people who are disoriented, under the influence of drinks or drugs, or potential targets for robbery or assault.

A volunteer will call police communications, who will take the matter from there, sending a foot patrol or a car as they judge appropriate. Volunteers can also text McKnight directly.

Sergeant McKnight says the biggest benefit of the cameras is prevention, although detecting crimes and identifying offenders is also very important.

‘We get a lot of co-operation from the private owners of CCTV cameras. If we ask to see their footage, invariably they give it to us. I can’t recall any time when we have asked and been refused. After all, it’s in their interests and they see that very clearly.’

Capital wasn’t allowed to meet or talk to any volunteers, with the PR department citing safety

and security issues. However, nine volunteers have their pictures and first names on the council’s website. In two cases surnames are used, and in three cases the person’s place of work is also given.

The PR department arranged for one of them, Jordan, to respond to written questions. He says weekdays are quieter than weekends. ‘You may see fighting/disorder, theft, property damage or someone with a medical emergency’.

He finds the busier weekend night shifts obviously more intense, with more potential for crimes and risks to people’s safety. Anti-social behaviour and alcohol are the obvious issues at night, so ‘you are looking out for criminal activity and potential victims’.

He tells us he once played a role in apprehending an offender.

He saw a speeding car pull up in Te Aro Park. ‘Then a male jumped out with a machete in his hand and ran into a nearby business. I got straight onto the police radio and notified them of the situation.

‘The offender was back in his car in less than a minute and took off. Shortly afterward it comes over the radio that a unit has pulled the car over and recovered a machete from the vehicle.’

Sergeant McKnight says that the success of the cameras is hard to determine: ‘Statistics will tell you some things but it’s hard to find the root cause of what drives crime figures up or down.’

But he is clear that without the cameras in operation, people walking though the city streets would be more at risk than they are now.

‘It may sound a bit Big Brother, but this works,’ he says.