Estate CCTV cameras will not now happen

This is just a proposal, but it seems likely that this will come to pass ...

The City Police are no longer proposing to put CCTV cameras around the Barbican Estate.

Because the level of crime is so low, data protection requirements mean they cannot be justified:  “The overwhelming conclusion fed into the Privacy Impact Assessment is that there is not sufficient justification of a ‘problem that needs addressing’ in order to comply with the SCC and Information Commissioner’s guidance on the introduction of surveillance systems.” See:

http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=142&MId=17764&Ver=4

(that link now seems to be blocked)

Stolen Bikes - Secure your bike

Bicycles have been stolen from the Breton House (/Ben Jonson House) car park.

The most recent theft was on 22nd April.  There were a three bikes stolen last year.

If you keep a bike in the car park please make sure lock it securely, or even better use one of the bike lockers.  If you would like to rent a bike locker please contact the BEO.

There is some CCTV coverage in the car parks but it is primarily designed to protect the Deutsche Bank cars so only incidentally covers bike parking.

A CCTV Experience

A resident sent me the following story about their experience with CCTV.  Interesting things in this story are the resolution of the cameras, who has access to the cameras and how the use of the cameras is logged (or not).

____

... one day I spotted that the CCTV camera in the street outside was pointing into our building. I queried this with the police and was advised that it was pointed towards one of the televisions that were hanging from our ceiling. The television was a good 50 ft into the building.

I visited Wood Street police station to talk to the CCTV specialist. He advised that, because of the number of agencies that could access the CCTV system, he could not tell me who had re-positioned the camera, when they had repositioned it and what they had seen.

I was given the opportunity to see the view from the cameras. It was possible to read writing on a computer screen 10 ft inside the building.

The consultation document advises that “The technology allows a ‘Privacy Mask’ to be applied to cover an area that impinges on any part of residents premises. The Privacy Mask will be part of any recorded images and no images from behind the privacy mask will be recorded.”. Having received my complaint, the police instigated what I think is the proposed privacy mask and I was given the opportunity to view this. The mask meant that an area of the screen was blacked out and the operator could not linger where the mask was set – the camera automatically moved away from the area. However, to enable the police to be able to see activity at street level (my office was on the first floor), not all the office could be included in the privacy mask.

The consultation advises that those in the City Corporation with access to the CCTV system includes: the City Transportation team in the Department of Built Environment, the Parking Enforcement Team and the Street Environment team. “In addition to this, CCTV may be accessed/ used for the security monitoring of major planned events taking place within the City and may be used in the event of an emergency/ major incident”. I think that too many people will have access to the images and, based on my experience, I do not believe that the proposed controls around the use of cameras is sufficient.

CCTV for the Barbican

Sent on behalf of the chairs of the Barbican Association and the Residents' Consultation Committee
____

The City of London is considering installing CCTV in the area of the Barbican. The City has asked for comments from the Residents' Consultation Committee at its meeting on the 18th May. As we know this is something that many residents will have views about, we would like to know what views people hold, so we can make appropriate recommendations to the City. 

Attached you will find some briefing notes we have prepared on the background to this proposal, how it is to be funded, and the proposed locations for the CCTV cameras and some key questions and answers.

Please review the attached information before you complete our short consultation survey, so that you understand what is being proposed. 

To access the survey please follow this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N97JFT7

We will treat your response in confidence – we will not pass on names or any other information that could identify any individual.

We have also made printed copies of the briefing notes and consultation form available via the Estate Concierges for any residents who cannot access the Internet. 

Don't delay if you wish to respond! The deadline for responses is Thursday 30 April, which we cannot extend because we need to report the results to members of the RCC the following week. The deadline for responses on paper is Tuesday 28 April, due to the extra time required to process written responses.

We regret we cannot accept responses to this consultation by email. Please use the online or paper form to respond to this consultation.

Thank you in advance for sharing your opinions with us.

Tim Macer, RCC Chairman
Jane Smith, BA Chair

More detail about the CCTV Camera - Staircase 64

From the BEO:

Dear Resident
Please find below the recent results from the CCTV Survey.
Would you like to see the camera at staircase 64, street level, be put into operation or removed?
•       Operative - 83.6%
•       Removed - 16.4%  

Further to the above please find brief answers to some of the questions placed within the survey:-
•       The Camera will now become operative from Monday 16 September 2013.
•       Recordings will only be used if there is any incident and retained for approximately 28 days
•       Secure storage - At the Breton House Car Park Office with recorded footage requiring a login in and password
•       Only your Concierge Staff at Breton House and myself have access to view recorded footage
•       The Barbican Estate has an excellent record for extremely low number of incidents.
•       In 2008 the Car Parks had to review its services as they were running at a financial loss (due to low occupancy and staff costs). At this time the car parks were also required to achieve savings of £200k. There was a very strong possibility that one/two car park offices or even a whole car park could have been closed. However, through additional commercial income we have managed to achieve the savings needed and this particular contract that we now have in Breton House, played a significant part in this.
•       This particular commercial tenant has previously used bays within Speed House Car Park for over 4 years with no negative resident feedback.
•       In 2008, Breton House Car Park had the lowest occupancy levels across all of the Barbican's car parks at just 40%.
 With regards Barbican Estate Office 

Panic Button by lift 64 Level 02

It seems that a panic button has been installed in the lift lobby on level 02 of lift 64 (the Waitrose end lift).  It looks like it is connected to the new CCTV system:

Push me - but only in an emergency

The text of the message tied onto the button is:

EMERGENCY

CALL POINT

IF PRESSED AUDIBLE

ALARM WILL SOUND

AND ASSISTANCE

WILL BE CONTACTED

I have asked the BEO to let us have details of how this will work.  For example, who will be contacted, who will respond and how quickly will there be a response.

CCTV Survey Results

Following on from the unannounced installation of a CCTV camera the BEO decided to run a Survey Monkey on-line survey to see if residents would like to have the camera activated.  The results are:

Would you like to see the camera at staircase 64, street level, be put into operation or removed?
• Operative - 83.6%• Removed - 16.4%

So the camera will be switched on.  Barry Ashton of the BEO has prepared a letter which includes the results and also answers to questions put by residents.  This will be posted on BJH notice boards.

The BEO tell me that they looked into listed building consent, and they didn't need it for this.  Also that they would be painting the ducting which is currently just bare metal, and also that the BEO would send out information about the panic button (at least that's what it looks like) which has been installed alongside the door as part of the CCTV system.

CCTV Code of Practice

The BBC reports that a new code of practice for CCTVs has come into force.

Will this apply to the CCTV cameras recently installed in Ben Jonson House?

L02 Stair 64 CCTV: The story so far ...

This is a catch up posting and so is quite long.

A CCTV camera appeared in Ben Jonson House during the week leading up to the 1st June.  It was installed next to the L02 lift doors by stairway 64.   When asked, our house officer said they knew nothing at all of this.

The camera looks like this:

I wrote to the BEO asking them to halt work on this until they had completed consultation with residents.   The BEO confirmed that the work had been halted.

On 6th June 2013 I raised a complaint to the BEO that there had not been any consultation (or even notice!) that the camera had been installed.  Here is the complaint:

Thank you for this response.  I look forward to discussing this with you during your residents consultation.  I know many other people have an interest and would also welcome the opportunity to contribute their thoughts. 

I am certain that there were the best of intentions, but this has to be taken against the fact that residents have asked time and again to be at least notified before works are done which affect their home and are repeatedly let down.  Even our house officer knew nothing of this, which must say something about internal communications within the BEO too. 

In the spirit of working with the BEO to improve processes and transparency I would like to make an official complaint about this instance.  Please take this email message as a complaint. 

Could you please detail what parties were involved and/or consulted and when in the lead up to the decision to install camera(s) in Ben Jonson House.  I don't expect you to provide detailed information on individuals. The number of residents and whether they live in Ben Jonson House or not, plus the names of any external entities would be a good start.
Could you please also tell me what the consultation process should have been? 

I'd like to emphasise here that I'm raising this 'complaint' in order to help improve the processes and avoid residents being surprised by works and changes in and around their homes.  The BEO do a smashing job on the whole and my hope is that the complaints process will bring some focus to the issue of communication and help make things even better.

On the 14th June the BEO responded:

Thank you for your email of 6 June. I can confirm this has been treated as a complaint.
First, to answer your questions in order;
· Parties involved in the installation of the CCTV were:- Barry Ashton – Car Park and Security Manager, our contractors and the commercial tenant who paid for the installation.
· Who we should have consulted with:- Ben Jonson House Group in the first instance followed by all residents via noticeboards and BEO email broadcast.
As Barry Ashton has explained this installation was done with the best of intentions ie. to improve the security of Ben Jonson residents. However this should not have been carried out without first consulting with the residents of your block. The CCTV has been disconnected and will remain so until the BEO has gone back and carried out this step. If need be, following that consultation, the CCTV will be removed.
Mr Badger, the BEO is working hard to improve its communication processes with residents all the time, and I do hope that over recent years you’ve seen evidence of this. This incident is not indicative of our normal standards and we fully accept that we got it wrong this time. Please accept our apologies and I hope you feel that we are working hard to put things right in this instance.
This complaint has been dealt with at stage one of the City of London Complaints Procedure, a link to which is attached. If you do not consider that your complaint has been dealt with satisfactorily, you can escalate it to stage 2 of the procedure by writing to Eddie Stevens, Housing Services Director, setting out why you are unhappy with the investigation and/or outcome.
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-our-website/Documents/complaint_form.pdf

Regards

Towards the end of June I heard that there were additional cameras installed within the Ben Jonson / Breton car park.  Yet another surprise.

On 8th July the BEO told us how they planned to proceed:

Following a discussion with my colleagues, we feel the best way to proceed with a consultation with Ben Jonson residents is as follows:-
Online survey to gauge opinion. This is the same format as the recent estate wide residents’ survey which had an excellent response rate. This will be advertised via Barbican email broadcast and posters on the noticeboards within Ben Jonson. As with other surveys the posters will make clear a paper copy is available from the House Officer if needed. The invite to participate in the survey will only go to Ben Jonson residents and on Ben Jonson noticeboards. We will give 2 weeks for responses The wording will read:-
Dear Ben Jonson Resident.
As you may be aware a commercial contract has rented some bays within Breton Car Park. This is a contract that has been on the estate (in Speed Car Park) without incident, for over 4 years.
The drivers have access to the car park via staircase 64 street level. Because of this the BEO installed  a camera at the expense of the commercial tenant. Concern was raised by some residents about the installation of a camera and the lack of consultation about this. The camera has subsequently been made inoperative. It is intended that the camera will feed to Breton car park box.
•       Would you like to see the camera at Staircase 64, street level be put into operation or removed?
o       Operative
o       Removed
•       Do you have any comments?
Following this, the survey results will be communicated to your House Group committee and then via the noticeboards and BEO email broadcast to Ben Jonson House residents. We are continually reviewing our consultation/communication processes to develop a model for different projects/works on the Barbican Estate - as well as this the City is also developing a consultation framework for schemes in and around the Estate being carried out by other Departments following the Barbican Highwalks seating/planting projects on Ben Jonson Highwalk and St Giles Terrace (this was mentioned at the recent City residents meetings by the Town Clerk) .
Mr Badger, the BEO is working very hard to improve its communication with residents. The website is now regularly updated by BEO staff,  we ensure that residents are sent a link when new committee papers are posted, following the RCC the BEO produces a “you said we did” update, the Q&A sessions that have worked well this past year for the Beech Gardens  project are now being used on other projects and these are posted on our website as well.

Then the BEO then sent out a notice dated 9th July asking for feedback from residents using survey monkey as explained above.  Here is the notice they posted.

I asked how all residents and long leaseholders could respond when may people either don't use computers or don't currently live in the building.  The BEO responded:

In addition to the email broadcast, the survey has been sent out to all external addresses for those long lease holders and the attached letter was placed onto the notice boards for any other residents whom may not have access to a computer. 

... which brings us up to date.

The next thing I'm expecting is a discussion about the results of the survey.