Council welcomes VAGO report into CCTV
Published on 19 September 2018
Horsham Rural City Council (HRCC) has welcomed a Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) report into CCTV in public places as it strives to improve public safety while protecting people’s privacy.
Auditor-General Andrew Greeves’ report tabled in State Parliament on Wednesday found that HRCC could improve the way it managed information gathered via public safety cameras.
HRCC was one five Victorian Councils randomly audited along with the Cities of Melbourne, Whitehorse and Hume and East Gippsland Shire Council.
The report found all five Councils used surveillance technology legitimately, but the systems needed to be managed better to comply with privacy laws.
To enhance the safety of the community, HRCC operates public CCTV systems primarily in the Horsham central activity district. There are also corporate security systems installed at the Town Hall and Kalkee Road Children’s and Community Hub.
Chief Executive Officer Sunil Bhalla said Council had already responded to 10 recommendations from the report.
“The priority is the final adoption of Council’s CCTV Policy, which is currently in draft form,” Mr Bhalla said.
“Other key areas we are addressing include improving physical security and access controls for corporate CCTV systems and more regularly assessing whether those controls are working.”
“The response to the VAGO recommendations includes a timeframe for completion of the actions required to satisfy each recommendation.”
Mr Bhalla stressed that there had been no security breaches raised for Horsham’s public security systems.
“We had no incidents of inappropriate use of surveillance systems or footage. The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner also had no such complaints,” Mr Bhalla said.
“A strength of Council’s current public CCTV systems is that the data is securely housed at Horsham Police Station and viewable only by police.
“This provides a significant level of protection and ensures that the information is only used for appropriate purposes.
“Notwithstanding this, Council accepts the recommendations of the report - that Council should be able to demonstrate that it is securely maintaining these systems to prevent any such breach,” he said.