Cork council seeks meeting with Data Protection Commissioner over obstacles to CCTV

Cork City Council is to seek a meeting with the Data Protection Commissioner over concerns that GDPR issues are hindering the installation of CCTV cameras in communities affected by antisocial behaviour.

Councillors highlighted growing demands for CCTV to address antisocial activity in their local areas, although one member warned of the dangers of “mass surveillance”.

Labour councillor Peter Horgan raised the issue following a number of incidents in Cork’s southside suburbs, including a children’s swing and bins being set alight in separate incidents in Loughmahon Park. He also referenced the theft of a cat by youths.

The two young men who stole Felix the cat were seen on CCTV with him in their hands, but the cat’s owner was told this footage cannot be released to the public, due to data protection. The animal was later found so severely injured it had to be put to sleep.

Back in August, teenage brothers Shane and Logan McCarthy were the victims of an unprovoked attack in Mahon. Their mother said at the time that CCTV footage could have helped identify those responsible, after one of her sons suffered severe facial injuries and a concussion.

The Echo sought details from Cork City Council on the number of CCTV cameras currently in operation across the city, how that compared with the previous year, and whether any additional cameras were planned, amid claims that some cameras had been removed.

Almost two months later, the information has yet to be provided. A Freedom of Information request seeking the same details was refused this week, with the council’s FOI office stating that the record requested did not exist.

Antisocial behaviour and illegal dumping

The Data Protection Commission said: “Local authorities can use CCTV systems as part of their efforts to deal with both antisocial behaviour and illegal dumping.”

However, they must provide a specific purpose for CCTV installation, carry out a data protection impact assessment, get formal approval from the Garda Commissioner, put in place safeguards to protect the confidentiality of personal data recorded, and monitor the camera’s effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

Mr Horgan’s motion that the council “write to the Data Protection Commissioner to seek a meeting on why GDPR obstacles are constantly being placed in the way of rolling out CCTV schemes”, was heard at a meeting on Monday night.

He said that people were “going around on scramblers, in balaclavas looking for defenceless animals” to attack, and expressed a concern they will turn to humans next if not stopped. His party colleague John Maher said the current system means people have to put themselves and their family at risk by testifying against criminal behaviour in court. All councillors except Brian McCarthy of Solidarity-People Before Profit and Jerrica Struthers of the Workers Party voted in favour. Mr McCarthy said that reducing the oversight needed for CCTV to be installed in public spaces would erode public protections without reducing crime, adding that one study “showed that, at best, street crime shifted a few metres away from the cameras”.

“Mass surveillance of people is a threat to civil liberties and raises immediate concerns for the inevitable erosion of the right to privacy that would cause,” he said.