Safe City Cameras Audit Report 1/1/2011 - 31/12/2011

CITY OF MELBOURNE

SAFE CITY CAMERAS

AUDIT COMMITTEE

SAFE CITY CAMERAS

PROGRAM

AUDIT REPORT

FOR THE PERIOD 01/01/11 - 31/12/11

July 2012

Audit Committee Report Safe City Program. Auditrep. #7347972

CITY OF MELBOURNE SAFE CITY CAMERAS PROGRAM AUDIT COMMITTEE

30 July 2012

Mr Geoff Robinson

Manager, Engineering Services

City of Melbourne

PO Box 1603M

MELBOURNE VIC 3000

Dear Mr Robinson,

SAFE CITY CAMERAS PROGRAM AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT

In accordance with the Protocols and Terms of Reference governing the establishment and operation of the Safe City Cameras Program Audit Committee, we submit our Audit Report for the period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011.

Yours sincerely

......

John Buxton Bronwyn Duncan Gerard Butcher

Chair Member Member

Audit Committee Report Safe City Program. Auditrep.doc #7347972

Safe City Cameras Audit Committee Report

CONTENTS

1. ESTABLISHMENT AND OBJECTIVES OF THE SAFE CITY CAMERAS PROGRAM.

2. ESTABLISHMENT, COMPOSITION AND TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE.

3. THE OPERATION OF THE SAFE CITY PROGRAM.

4. THE CONTROL ROOM AND ITS OPERATIONS.

5. RESPONDING TO INCIDENTS.

6. DOCUMENTING AND HANDLING RECORDINGS DISSEMINATED TO THE POLICE, THE PUBLIC AND THE COURTS.

7. DESTRUCTION OF MATERIAL.

8. MONITORING ACCESS BY PERSONS TO THE CONTROL ROOM.

9. THE USE MADE OF IMAGES.

10. COMPLAINTS.

11. CONCLUSION.

1. establishment and OBJECTIVES OF THE SAFE CITY CAMERA PROGRAM

1.1 On 6 December 1995, the City of Melbourne resolved to establish a closed circuit television system in the Central Business District (CBD) known as ‘Safe City Cameras Program” (SCCP). The aims of the SCCP are to:

(a) aid in the provision of a safer physical environment;

(b) assist police to reduce crime levels by deterring potential offenders; and

1.2 The Program comprises the City of Melbourne's public Closed Circuit Television operation. The Program is one aspect of the Council’s Strategy for a Safer City. Other aspects of the strategy include Safe City Taxi Ranks, an accord with Melbourne licensees, lighting audits, more visible police presence, improved night transport and laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public places.

1.3 Persons involved in the SCCP, including City of Melbourne officers, Victoria Police members, contractors and their staff (including Control Room Operators and mobile unit personnel), are required to follow security procedures and guidelines designed to safeguard the SCCP's integrity. These are set out in the Safe City Cameras Program Manual.

1.4 The operation of the SCCP is governed by these Protocols and the accompanying procedural documents, namely:

· SCCP Standard Operating Procedures and Training Manual;

· The Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Melbourne and the Victoria Police concerning live streaming of images.

The Policy, Protocols, Operating Procedures and Memorandum of Understanding relating to the operation of the SCCP have been developed in conjunction with the Victoria Police and other stakeholders. They outline Council policy and provide instruction and guidelines concerning various aspects of the SCCP, including responding to incidents; access to the Control Room; handling, storage and destruction of recordings made of incidents and photographs; copying and releasing material; responding to requests from the police and certain civilian applicants; transfer vision to police; operation of mobile cameras; court appearances; review of incident reports; servicing complaints; and media. The SCCP Standard Operating Procedures and Training Manual is reviewed as the need arises.

2. ESTABLISHMENT, COMPOSITION AND TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE

2.1. At the commencement of the SCCP, the Melbourne City Council (the Council) established an Audit Committee whose functions are to:

(a) provide an independent review and checking mechanism for the SCCP that ensures the Program meets the requirements of its Protocols and Operating Procedures;

(b) promote public confidence in the SCCP by ensuring its operations are transparent to the public and under ongoing independent scrutiny and review; and

2.2 Throughout the audit period, the Audit Committee comprised independent representatives, namely Mr John Buxton (Chair), Ms Bronwyn Duncan, and Mr Gerard Butcher. At the end of 2011, Mr Butcher resigned from the Committee and Mr Bill Horman was appointed in his place. The Committee extends its gratitude to Mr Butcher for his work on the Committee over 11 years.

2.3 The Audit Committee is required to provide a written report to Council through the Future Melbourne (People and Creative City) Committee. As indicated above, it is intended that this report will evaluate the operations of the SCCP and compliance with the Protocols and Operating Procedures. The Audit Committee’s report will be available to the public.

2.4 Regular six weekly meetings were held throughout the 2011 audit period and these were devoted to examining the operations of the system supporting the SCCP, bringing to attention any areas of non compliance and suggesting changes which could enhance its effectiveness.

2.5 In practical terms, the matters the Audit Committee are required to review include:

(a) the operation of the Control Room, of the mobile units and of live vision transfer to police;

(b) response to incidents;

(d) compliance with procedures and protocols;

(e) destruction of material upon its return;

(f) monitoring of access by persons to the Control Room;

(g) use made of recorded material; and

(h) complaints.

These areas are examined by the Audit Committee to ensure that the use of the cameras is for designated purposes only and their operation and management complies with the Protocols and Procedures and does not compromise the privacy and rights of the general public through any unauthorised use.

2.7 The results of the Committee’s audit of these areas are set out in the following pages of this report.

3. THE OPERATION OF THE SAFE CITY PROGRAM

3.1 At the commencement of this audit period, the SCCP incorporated 53 closed circuit television CCTV cameras in the King Street precinct, Bourke Street precinct, Russell Street precinct, Elizabeth Street precinct, Swanston Street precinct, Southbank and Docklands precincts. The cameras have been located in areas which have a history of higher levels of reported crime and/or public concern.

3.2 With the exception of the cameras attached to mobile vehicles mentioned in paragraph 3.5 below, the cameras operating in the SCCP are linked to a centrally located Control Room via fibre optic cabling where they are monitored by trained security personnel. Under the SCCP, vision from the cameras may be transmitted to monitors at the Police Operations Centre at D24 and the Melbourne East Police Station. These monitors were installed to assist the police response in appropriate cases.

Provision of live vision to police

3.3 In December 2009, following the Melbourne City Council and the Victoria Police signing a Memorandum of Understanding, the operation of the SCCP was expanded to stream live vision from the 53 cameras to the Victoria Police Operations Centre. This facility enables police personnel to respond more quickly and more appropriately to incidents of concern to the police.

The operation of mobile camera units

3.4 Another development to the SCCP involved the introduction in November 2009 of two security vehicles each fitted with a CCTV camera. These two vehicles, staffed by two trained security personnel, patrol the city principally in areas not covered by fixed cameras. The personnel in the vehicles have direct communication with the SCCP Control Room which can request police to attend an incident. The cameras on each vehicle run continuously during each nightly shift. A log of events observed by personnel in each vehicle is manually recorded. If the incident is observed, a narrative of the incident is made and later entered on the SCCP Information Management System. All the images recorded by the cameras over each shift are downloaded at the end of the shift on the SCCP’s hard drive.

3.5 During 2011, the mobile units operated from 1 January 2011 to May 2011 and again from 4 November 2011 to 31 December 2011. Two vehicles were used and four personnel were involved each night.

4. THE CONTROL ROOM AND ITS OPERATIONS

4.1 The Control Room is staffed round the clock by security personnel under contract to the City of Melbourne.

4.2 Control Room Operators are required to maintain strict vigilance of the system's monitors, maintain the integrity of the storage and movement of recorded material, control access to the Control Room, accurately record on the SCCP Computer Management System a brief description of any incident observed by the Control Room Operator and respond to and report the relevant incidents to the police.

Recording of camera Images and Incidents

4.3 Control Room Operators monitor camera positions and focus on priority areas. There are two operators monitoring the fifty-three cameras in the Control Room. Images from each camera are together displayed on a large LCD screen in the Control Room.

4.4 The images from each of the cameras are recorded digitally on hard discs on a DVTEL digital recording system located in the Control Room. These images are kept for 28 days, after which time they are overwritten unless required to be copied for investigation purposes.

4.5 The digital system records the images from all fixed cameras operating onto the DVTEL system in real time.

Control Room Operator’s Response to the Occurrence of an Incident

4.6 The SCCP captures information in an Incident Log where a Control Room Operator records an incident as it is occurring or after it is reported to the Control Room (eg by the police) at a later time. An incident is any situation involving any apparent or threatened injury to a person or damage to property or any other apparent breach of the law. The SCCP also uses an Administrative Log to capture information related to the management of the SCCP such as registration of visitors, system faults and vision tests.

4.7 Upon identifying the occurrence of an incident, the Control Room Operators are required to take immediate action which, depending on the type of incident, may include:

(a) notifying the police and remaining in contact as required;

(b) transferring vision to the remote monitor at D24 and/or the Melbourne East Police Station;

(d) in the case of a Major incident (involving major emergencies in the city), transferring operational control to the police on the request of the appropriate Responsible Officer;

(e) recording the incident; and

(f) noting specific details of the incident on the Computer Management System.

4.8 When observing a particular incident on the monitor (eg. suspected criminal activity), the Control Room Operators immediately transfer the image they see on the screen to one of the Target Monitors. The images of the incident are recorded in real time on hard drive as an accurate record of each particular incident identified. If an incident occurs within the field of vision of a camera and is not observed by the Control Room Operators, it still will be captured and recorded on the hard disc and will be able to be retrieved at a later stage and copied to DVD should a request be made.

Dissemination of Recordings of incidents

4.9 Recordings of incidents are only made available to authorised police members and authorised civilians who meet the criteria in the Protocols and agree to meet with the requirements for handling, use and return of all tapes. The release of any recording should occur only after an appropriately authorised Application Form has been presented and a City of Melbourne Responsible Officer approves the release. In the case of an emergency, the recording can be released to a police member and the required Form provided subsequently.

The Computer Management System

4.10 The Control Room Operators record on the SCCP's Computer Management System every event or incident which comes to his/her notice. Each such record is made in the form of a separate Incident Report. This record includes a narrative of the incident as the Control Room Operators see it and is a very useful guide to the managers (and auditors) of the SCCP to the frequency and nature of problems experienced in the areas where the cameras are located. The Control Room Operators cross-reference the narrative recorded on the computer and the images of the incident recorded so that the relevant material can later be retrieved if required (eg for investigation or evidentiary purposes).

4.11 As well as recording a narrative of the incident viewed or reported, the Control Room Operators also select and enter standardised key words (which are appropriate to the incident viewed) in specific fields on the Incident Report. The information in these fields aids retrieval of specific information from the stored data and aids analysis of the SCCP. The fields include the date, time, location, category and type of incident, who first observed the incident, whether the incident was reported and vision switched to the police and the outcome of the incident.

4.12 Information can be retrieved from the system in a variety of formats including statistical information and inter-related graphs.

Evaluation and outcome of audit

4.13 In conducting its audit, the Audit Committee checked whether each of the requirements set out for Control Room Operators in the Operating Procedures had been complied with.

4.14 The Audit Committee attended the Control Room during the 2011 audit period while the camera system, monitors and recording equipment were in operation and is satisfied that the monitors, recording equipment and camera system are effective and are being operated within the Operating Procedures and meets the objectives of the SCCP.

4.15 In conducting its audit, the Audit Committee also considered whether the Computer Management System assisted the SCCP and whether the details of visitors, incidents and dissemination of material was entered on the Computer Management System in accordance with the Protocols and Operating Procedures.

4.16 The Audit Committee has previously recommended that the City of Melbourne review and upgrade the computer management system to ensure that the most useful information can be accurately recorded and retrieved quickly and simply. The upgrade was completed and implemented during the audit period in October 2011.