Council rejects ‘big brother’ CCTV tactics

City of Sydney Council has resisted pressure from police to enact drastic new measures for its closed circuit television (CCTV) system that would allow it to be used for general intelligence gathering for crimes including terrorist activity.
Under the proposals set out in the first review of the City’s Street Safety Camera Program, police would be allowed direct access to the CCTV control room in Town Hall House to track people in anticipation of committing a crime and provide footage to the media.
Council CEO Monica Barone said last week that police were putting pressure on staff to approve the changes, but on Monday Councillors voted against them, pushing an alternative motion to have interested parties plead their case before a committee.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said future changes to the use of the system would have to keep with original intentions of increasing street safety and discouraging crime.
Councillor Chris Harris called the proposals “real Big Brother stuff,” while Councillor Shayne Mallard likened them to a spy network.
Dr Lesley Lynch, Assistant Secretary of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL), said that proposals to extend the use of the CCTV surveillance system posed significant risks to private and civil rights.
The current Code of Conduct states that the cameras ‘may not be used for general intelligence gathering’. Dr Lynch said that extension of the scope of the program to allow intelligence gathering on individuals and locations would be ‘unnecessary and dangerous’.
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union also joined the debate saying that increased access to CCTV footage would allow police to act on “draconian” legislation that gives construction workers no right of silence in police interrogations with a penalty of six months’ gaol.
“This cctv footage can be used to interrogate an average worker on a building construction site,” said CFMEU Assistant State Secretary Brian Parker.
“If something that appears in that footage doesn’t appear to be exactly right, they’ve got the right to interrogate them and if they don’t answer the questions, they can be put in jail.”
NSW Police declined to comment on their intentions for the City’s CCTV system.
In the last three years the number of cameras have increased from 50 to 81 and now covers the City Central region, Kings Cross, Surry Hills, Glebe and Woolloomooloo.