City of Joburg should have consulted residents before imposing new CCTV bylaw, says expert

The City of Johannesburg should have consulted ordinary citizens before imposing municipal bylaws that restrict the use of CCTV cameras to assess what would be in the interest of the public when sharing footage of crime, says a crime expert.

The city on Friday promulgated a new bylaw on the use of private CCTV cameras, which prohibits residents from posting CCTV footage on social media and the internet.

The bylaw states that CCTV cameras which show public places such as roads must be approved and registered with the city. The cameras cannot be moved, updated or taken down without consent. In addition, footage of a crime cannot be shared on the internet or WhatsApp groups.

Retired crime expert of the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger, said the municipality should have first consulted the public and residents, despite CCTV footage being at risk of abuse.

“I think one should be able to judge what is in the interest of security in your community and environment, and within the neighbourhood when you have your cameras. I think much more discussion and consultation is necessary before they go on record with any bylaws that would regulate this kind of thing.

“I just feel ordinary citizens have not had an opportunity to properly express their views on the advantages and disadvantages of the system. I came to know about this [bylaw] through media reports, and I was never consulted. I think this is something that needs to be done. You can’t just go ahead and do something without proper process consultations,” Burger said.

The city’s public safety committee chairperson, Sarah Wissler, told TimesLIVE that the bylaw was not intended to interfere with residents’ private spaces. It was about people’s privacy, despite private cameras in the city being massively advantageous to law enforcement.

“Imagine there is a bank robbery. The robbers flee in a vehicle and they go through a suburb. A young mother and her baby are out with a stroller, and they get hit. If there is footage of this incident, the bylaw will allow it to be shared with law enforcement but prevent people from sharing it on the internet. Imagine it was your wife and your child and people you don’t know are watching the footage of their deaths on the internet,” Wissler said.

While community policing forums, private security companies and residents often got access to security footage of crime, and shared it, the new bylaw requires that those interested in the footage can only access it from law enforcement with a case number, Wissler said.

Violent crimes research expert Dr Hennie Lochner believed that CCTV footage was the number one crime-fighting tool as it helped identify criminals. 

“Criminals are not afraid of being arrested. They are afraid of being seen. That is the basis of crime prevention and security management. If they can be seen, then they can be identified and can be individualised, and that is actually the basis of crime prevention. There are between 15 and 16 security measures one can implement, but the first three are CCTV camera, lighting and perimeter security. CCTV cameras are helpful,” Lochner told TimesLIVE.

According to Burger, a CCTV system can be open to abuse, such as when it is facing a neighbour’s home, which could be appealing to a person with criminal intent who might observe such footage for possible targets. He said one should be careful with identifying other people's property through sharing such videos, even if it is to make the residents aware of suspicious activity in the area.

In addition, handing over footage or giving access to private security cameras to community policing forums, or officials from private security companies, could pose a risk as one would not know exactly what would happen to the footage, Burger said.

“You can give away a lot [of information] when you give access to your private security cameras at your home. I think this will have to be carefully debated and there should be a broad agreement on who is allowed access and under what circumstances. It is a long-standing practice that the police can approach owners of private security companies and those with private cameras when there was a criminal offence committed in the area covered by the cameras and can use them to assist with investigations. I support that,” he said.

However, according to Lochner, the process of having to apply for approval to install a CCTV camera could hamper crime fighting as CCTV cameras facing public areas could assist in solving crimes. 

“Applying for approval to install CCTV cameras will not just make crime fighting difficult but in some instances, it will hamper the crime investigation. If I have a CCTV camera on my premises installed, and they broke into my neighbour's house and killed them, this footage can be used to solve that crime. My opinion is that the number one crime prevention method is CCTV cameras,” he said. 

The new bylaw states that the city will inspect cameras before approving, while registration of the cameras will be free.

TimesLIVE