We have CCTV in our stores and use it to detect theft. How can we ensure that the evidence we collect can be used in court?

Many retailers view footage from their CCTV cameras live to catch shoplifters while they are in the act. But if you want to ensure that thieves are prosecuted, especially where they have become violent towards your staff, you must ensure the evidence you collect would be admissible in court.

Pauline Norstrom, who is the chairman of the CCTV section of the British Security Industry Association explains that there is a British Standard, BS8495, which gives recommendations for the specification, selection, installation and operation of digital CCTV recording systems that generate images which can be used in a court of law.

She says factors such as “the size of the subject in the field of view, lighting, maintenance, image transmission and specification of the camera/lens” will all be taken

into consideration.

Other key areas covered by BS8495 that retailers need to consider to ensure digital video evidence stands up in court include: the fitness for purpose of recorded images; the importance

of a detailed audit trail; the need to maintain image integrity by preventing unauthorised access; the role of time and date integrity; the considerations associated with effective storage; and the export and replay of exported images.

Norstrom concludes: “By promoting a best practice approach there should be the same confidence in the validity of digital media in the criminal justice system as there has been historically in VHS tape, and the BS8495 standard is a significant step towards realising this goal.”