A blanket policy governing council use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras was adopted by the Central Otago District Council (CODC) on Wednesday.
The council has six fixed CCTV cameras — at Alexandra Pool, Lode Lane in Cromwell and the Cromwell Septic Centre — and two roaming CCTV cameras used by the infrastructure team, with the potential to install more in areas where there are instances of vandalism against CODC property.
Council senior strategy adviser Alix Crosbie said the council’s CCTV cameras were used as a security measure to deter offending, increase public safety and protect council assets as well as monitor and manage traffic, and to assist staff in executing regulatory functions.
A location-specific policy for the CCTV camera at the Alexandra Pool has been in place since 2017. The policy came up for renewal and with other CCTV cameras since installed and requests from council teams to install more, it was determined a wider policy should be introduced to ensure a consistent framework was used for all access to CCTV data, Ms Crosbie said.
The policy only applied to council CCTV cameras and was governed by relevant legislation, including the Privacy Act, taking a "strict approach" to CCTV access, including provision for individual cameras and camera areas to be clearly signposted for the public.
It would be required for all CCTV access to have a clear business purpose and be in line with all of the relevant legislation, Ms Crosbie said.
Deputy mayor Neil Gillespie raised concerns around other organisations being able to install cameras and not inform the community of their presence.
"We talk about other entities and their cameras, what strikes me is for our community to know there’s cameras," Mr Gillespie said.
A memorandum of understanding would be agreed between Council and New Zealand Police to manage access to CCTV footage for law enforcement purposes.
The removal of footage after 30 days was also raised, however Cr Tamah Alley — a former policewoman — was able to confirm it was industry practice.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said it was important to note that these were not hidden cameras and were not in places people would expect privacy, but "coming from a court background, I know how much such technology deters crime and aids in its detection".
