Sunderland City Council criticised over use of body worn cameras by staff

The authority currently has 11 such devices – at a cost of £5,445 in use as part of its civil enforcement within parking services, a freedom of information request by campaigners Big Brother Watch revealed.

Figures from the civil liberties and privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch revealed that 54% of UK local authorities have equipped officials with body worn cameras.

Body worn cameras are being deployed to protect staff from aggressive behaviour, but are also being used to film the general public to catch them committing offences.

The research reveals that 66% of councils are not conducting privacy impact assessments before deploying the cameras, and 21% are keeping footage for longer than 31 days.

The FOI response from Sunderland City council reveals that the authority has no privacy impact assessment in place.

It does, however, not keep footage longer than 31 days.

Sunderland City Council Portfolio Holder for City Services, Coun Michael Mordey, said: “In 2013, this council introduced body cameras for the officers who help oversee parking regulations.

“The cameras help resolve disputes and also improve personal protection for officers.”

Renate Samson, Chief Executive of Big Brother Watch said: “Despite repeated warnings about misuse of surveillance powers we have found that once again councils are choosing to use powerful law enforcement tools with little consideration of privacy.

“Using body worn cameras to protect people’s safety is one thing, but widespread filming of people’s behaviour in order to issue fines is simply not proportionate.”