CCTV camera neighbours and the law.

DullGreyGuy

ratcatcher666 said:

With regard to the request for copies of footage . I read an article that stated the owner of the CCTV equipment can request a charge for the provision of the recordings. That was several years ago and at that time it was £10.

That was under the DPA which allowed a reasonable charge up to a maximum of £10

GDPR removed the charge on the first request and only allows the recharging of reasonable administration costs if the data subject asks for a "duplicate copy". Not sure if a new request at a later date is a "duplicate copy" but equally I dont see how a domestic user would incur any administration costs to be able to recharge them. 

ratcatcher666

Depends how they want the footage , memory stick, card etc.

ratcatcher666

The sound is very poor and only records sounds directly under the camera.

When I go out in the garden I take a hand held recorder and record any abusive language as instructed by the council and police.

ratcatcher666

elsien said:

My best guess would be, that people were complaining about harassment, so the police threatened the camera owner with a harassment warning causing them to remove the cameras.
your mediator sounds like a right piece of work. However, it doesn’t look great if you are the one who withdraws from mediation so is it worth persevering continue together evidence? Nothing to stop you waving the ICO guidance at the mediator to show that you understand the ramifications.

We had a visit today from the mediator.  and  we are not even allowed to look out of our upstairs bedroom window now but the neighbour is taking pictures  of my wife in our garden from hers . Accusing my wife of looking into her garden whilst she is gardening, impossible because we have a 6 foot fence.

The mediator brought the police along to persuage us to remove the camera. They said we were not breaking any laws but still asked us to take the camera down, to please the neighbour. We refused.

The neighbour has been shouting abuse again which is in breach of the previous CPW but the police and mediator were not interested in listening to the recording or taking action.

cerebus

Do you have the same mediator every time? Can you change them if you have lost all confidence in their ability?

ratcatcher666

cerebus said:

Do you have the same mediator every time? Can you change them if you have lost all confidence in their ability?

I Just hope she gets fed up and walks away, If I just stop the mediation it will look as though we are not coperating.We have not done anything to the neighbour except report them for various acts of anti social behaviour.  However as the neighbours relative works for the council nothing is done about it. I raised a complaint with the Ombidsman and he found in our favour but the council are not cooperating.

The camera is a deterrent as the neighbour knows that if she commits an act of anti social behaviour, I can record it and will have evidence. That is what she does not like and why she is trying to get it taken down. I do not point the camera at her property or record her. If the camera is taken down she is free to damage my property etc with no record.

RumRat

As no one can force you to take down the camera without a court order, just get rid of the mediator (It's voluntary) and let the neighbour take you to court to have it removed (they won't). A court will more than likely go with the Ombudsman's report against the council.
If it was me I would stick a second camera up and one on the front of the house (even a dummy one) to really give them something to moan about.

ratcatcher666

Thanks I think I will install a second camera.

joeypesci

ratcatcher666 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

marcia_ said:

ratcatcher666 said:

Had five years of abuse anti social behaviour from neighbours. They have had a CPw issued by the police but the council do nothing, although they are council tenants.  I recently made a complaint tyo the ombudsman and tey were forced to do something . A mediator called today but instaead of accepting the evidence of sound recordings of banging on the wall at 6.30 am she turned her attention to my cctv camera. She said although it is only filming my rear garden she can force me to take it down as it is not fixed but movable and that because I could move it at any time. I do not but because I can she can force me to remove it.

The reason the neighbour wants it down is because it recorded her shouting abuse at us and the police issued her with a CPW.

Does anyone know the exact laws that apply. The recorder does not keep recordings but over writes thwm after approximately 7 days of recording. 

DullGreyGuy said:

marcia_ said:

 If its only recording your property nobody can make you move or remove it 

But the OP says its not just recording their back garden, its also recording sound from the neighbour's garden. 

There were a couple of cases in the last few years where owners of smart doorbells etc have been successfully sued for unlawful data processing because of the audio they are recording. 

 No they said its only recording their garden 
it read to me the audio recording is coming from in the home? 

They said: 

ratcatcher666 said:

The reason the neighbour wants it down is because it recorded her shouting abuse at us and the police issued her with a CPW.

So the outside camera is recording their neighbours noises.

In the legal case it was compounded because the owner of the camera had said it didnt record sound when it was but ultimately the judge took particular exception to the recording of sound which they said couldn't be justified under the defendant's claim of installing them to stop thieves and was unlawful (the video was lawful even though it caught some of the claimants front garden).

Whilst it was speculated that the damages would be £100,000 after the breach of the DPA was confirmed (though harassment claim dismissed) I cant actually find what the outcome was... even the written judgement says that quantum would be set when the order was handed down.  

I have repeatedly been advised, by the council and police that they can't act without evidence and repeatedly advised to record both sound and video of ASB and I have advised both that my camera records sound and video. Although the audio recordings are of very poor quality and difficult to understand most of the time. When the camera recorded the neighbour shouting abuse at me, whilst outside the front of my house, the volume of her voice must have been just at the correct level as it recorded it perfectly but most of the time it is unclear.

Therefore I have a recorder inside my house, it does not record the neighbours conversations etc but will pick up any loud noises such as banging on a wall etc.from inside my home.

With regard to DPA I thought that was an EU law relating to busineses and personal data held by them,

The case of the "plumber" or whatever he was as it kept changing, was an interesting one because when he did his paper interviews he seemed to lie in those as well as when he gave his statement. Having read the court documents he changed his statement when he got into court. Said something along the lines of "If she's worried about the CCTV now, wait till I get the new cameras that will be able to see her eyeballs". But yeah, it was the audio recording that apparently screwed him over, but then with that ruling it essentially makes all Ring Doorbells in breach of GDPR.