Thousands of companies across the UK could find themselves unable to prosecute thieves, vandals and intruders, despite having CCTV footage of break-ins.

This is the stark warning from Stanley Security Solutions, which believes that UK police requirements for digital CCTV systems published by the Home Office last year are largely being overlooked. "Without the high quality footage needed to pursue a criminal investigation, UK businesses could be losing millions of pounds by unwittingly increasing their security risks and even invalidating insurance cover," the company's Matt Wheeler said. "The new guidelines were published over a year ago, but many companies seem to be unaware that there has been a change in requirements. Even amongst those that know there have been changes, there is widespread confusion about what's required.

"Effectively, this means that CCTV users are running systems that are inadequate, as footage would not often be sufficient for use by the police in any criminal investigation. these companies need to update their understanding of what's required and update their equipment before they are left counting the cost."

In the Home Office Guidelines, analogue CCTV video is no longer recommended as the preferred choice by police in criminal investigations and, when selecting a digital alternative, users are advised to consider quality, storage, export of images and playback facilities.

Under the revised requirements, CCTV users must ensure that their system is capable of storing at least 31 days of recorded footage in a secure environment. It should be capable of exporting both video and stills to a removable storage medium at original quality and the time and date should be accurately available for each picture. Playback software should have variable speed control, display single and multiple cameras, permit recordings from each camera to be searched by time and date and allow printing or saving of specific pictures with the time and date of recording. Wheeler said:

"Unfortunately, at the moment, it seems to be companies that have found their systems to be inadequate following a break-in that are driving upgrade to effective digital systems. I would urge all companies that rely on CCTV for security to ask themselves whether what they have in place is really enough." 'UK police requirements for digital CCTV systems' can be downloaded from www.crimereduction.gov.uk/cctv36.htm.

Source

Security Installer