Crime and intelligence - CCTV - use in an investigation procedure (S14004)

1.0 Summary of changes

1.1 This Standard Operating Procedure has been reviewed in September 2025 – amendments made to paragraphs 3.3.2, 3.3.3 and 3.6.

2.0 What this procedure/SOP is about

2.1 This SOP provides direction to operational staff as to the use and management of third-party CCTV in an investigation and its provision to the CPS for Court presentation. It also covers the process to be followed in terms of suspect recognition from CCTV footage or stills.

Compliance with this procedure/SOP and any governing policy is mandatory.

3.0 Detail the procedure/SOP

3.1. CCTV – Legal responsibilities

3.1.1. Currently, there is no primary legislation specifically controlling the use and publication of CCTV images. To use CCTV effectively, investigators should have a clear understanding of the relevant legislation, together with force and national policy relating to its use.

3.1.2. The existing applicable legislation that encompasses the management of evidence, including CCTV, comprises the following:

• Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001
• Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA)
• Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE)
• Police Reform Act 2002

Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) as it relates to the relevant parts of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or the Law of Enforcement Directive (LED)

3.2. CCTV – general

3.2.1. The existence of CCTV material should always be considered as a reasonable line of enquiry in an investigation.

3.2.2. When viewing CCTV, the emphasis should not simply be on whether the recording contains evidence of the offence but whether it contains anything which is considered relevant, i.e. could it prove or disprove the offence, has it any bearing on the offence under investigation or on any person being investigated, or on the surrounding circumstances?

3.2.3. The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 places a statutory obligation on the police to record and retain material that may be relevant to an investigation. Officers should err on the side of caution if they are unsure and record and retain CCTV footage. The footage should be retained in DAMS with the relevant offence retention category selected.

3.2.4. If the CCTV material is considered irrelevant, i.e. incapable of having any impact on the case, a PNB entry should be made as to what the recording contained along with the justification for not seizing it.

3.2.5. In every charge and summons case where CCTV constitutes key evidence, the CCTV must be comprehensively summarised in paragraph 4 of the MG5. If copies are not being provided to the CPS, confirmation that the CCTV has been seized, and its current location must also be recorded on paragraph 4 of the MG5.

3.2.6. Comprehensive guidance on the use of CCTV in criminal investigations can be found in the attached APP CCTV.

3.3. Viewing and retrieving CCTV

3.3.1. Businesses, companies and organisations must operate CCTV systems in accordance with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) CCTV Code of Practice, and abide by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) as it relates to the relevant parts of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or the Law of Enforcement Directive (LED).

3.3.2. Investigators must view/review the CCTV before seeking a charging decision and record and retain any material that is relevant. A copy of the CCTV can be obtained by sending a DAMS Community invite link to the member of the public or business. The member of the public or business will then be able to upload the footage via the link which, once complete, is auto ingested into DAMS. Please refer to DAMS Policy W6001 & SOP W6002 Operational use of DAMS. It must be noted that there will be some occasions due to the nature of the offence or the public or business being unable to upload via DAMS, that the CCTV will need to be viewed and collected in person, however this should be the exception not standard practice.

3.3.3. Investigators need to consider the following when retrieving CCTV

• how to note the correct time and date on the CCTV system
• how to establish the overwrite period
• how much footage to retrieve
• which cameras are relevant to the enquiry
• should extraction be unsuccessful the removal of CCTV systems and hard drives
• refusal of the CCTV owner to allow officers to view, retrieve or remove CCTV footage or the system
• specialist support for all aspects of CCTV viewing, retrieval and transcoding is available from your Local Image Recognition Unit practitioner
• recording CCTV with BWV is not an acceptable format for your investigation/casefile.

3.4. CCTV – key evidence

3.4.1. If CCTV is key evidence in a case, every effort must be made to utilise DAMS to play it to the suspect in interview and their response / reaction recorded on the ‘Defendant Interview’ section of the MG5.

3.4.2. If a suspect is charged or summonsed for an offence a copy of the evidential CCTV must be provided to CPS, using DAMS (Please refer to DAMS SOP W 6003 Procedure/SOP – Sharing of DAMS Digital Assets), unless the CCTV - Guilty plea criteria is met (see 3.6).

3.5. Transcoding CCTV

3.5.1. Transcoding means changing CCTV footage from its native format into another technical format. Transcoding is a digital process. Since the implementation of the DAMS (Digital Asset Management System) all media uploaded will go through an automated process of transcoding. The original remains intact, but a viewable (transcoded) version is created. DAMS is not capable of transcoding or playing all file types of CCTV footage uploaded and in these instances a process has been put in place.

3.5.2. DAMS has a sharing facility and has superseded Egress as the means of evidence provision accepted by CPS and HMCTS.

3.5.3. Following the implementation of DAMS on the 21 September 2022 any CCTV ingested into DAMS will be converted into a playable format automatically by the DAMS. Digital Assets uploaded to DAMS must be checked to ensure it plays. For instances when an Asset does not play within DAMS Officers or staff must retain the transport media and seek assistance from the Digital Hubs. The Digital Hubs will attempt to assist in the review of the Asset. Further specialist assistance, if required can be sought from DFU CCTV. For such assistance, form 3330C must be fully completed. If the Asset is already uploaded to DAMS a link must be provided. However, if the original CCTV was received via a disc instead of a DAMS link the disc must be labelled, exhibited and sealed before it is sent to the Digital Forensics CCTV Unit (DFU CCTV) by secure delivery until DFU have uploaded a playable format to DAMS which becomes the master. The officer submitting must ensure that exhibits are with DFU with adequate time to complete the request.

3.5.4. Original exhibits will be retained with DFU for a limited period but will be categorised under MOPI guidelines. Once the minimum number of storage boxes is reached the boxes will be archived for long term storage. Storage of exhibits is categorised together in MOPI levels (i.e. all MOPI 1 together, all MOPI 3 together etc).

3.5.5. The digital copy of the CCTV which has been transferred to the CPS via DAMS is retained on DAMS in accordance with the DAMS retention policy W 6004 Procedure/SOP – Review, Retention and Disposal of DAMS Digital Assets.

3.5.6. Digital Forensics will prioritise CCTV according to due date set in Athena which are within cases required for a court hearing and those delivered in person from specialist departments for serious crime investigations (e.g. SCD and PPU).

3.6. CCTV – guilty plea

3.6.1. For anticipated guilty plea cases, CCTV does not need to be provided for the first court hearing providing all of the following criteria are met. Stills of the footage should still be provided. Please see exceptions at 3.6.2.

• a guilty plea is anticipated
• a clear and unambiguous admission is made by the defendant in interview
• confirmation that the CCTV has been viewed and seized by police, as well as its location, is recorded on paragraph 4 of the MG5
• the CCTV evidence is comprehensively summarised on paragraph 4 of the MG5
• it is not an offence that can only be proven by the provision of transcoded CCTV, for example public order

3.6.2. Exceptions: CCTV footage will be provided on GAP cases in the following circumstances:

• all assaults (including AoEW)
• public order
• moving traffic offences which show the manner of driving
• on order of the court
  the moving footage would assist in appropriate sentencing when viewed

3.6.3. In all other cases where CCTV constitutes key evidence, or the court adjourn the matter for the CCTV to be provided, Kent Police will provide it via DAMS.

3.7. CCTV – identifications/intelligence and PACE code D

3.7.1. Recognition is the belief by a person that they know an individual captured on CCTV or a still image.

3.7.2. Staff must be clear about whether their recognition constitutes an Identification of a suspect or is for Intelligence purposes only.

3.7.3. Failure to make this distinction may result in cases being subsequently lost at court.

3.7.4. Identification evidence must be recorded in compliance with Para 3.36 of Code D, PACE Codes of Practice. The completion of a proforma statement is required and should the person be charged; the identification will constitute key evidence in the case.

3.7.5. Intelligence is not a Code D compliant identification and must be recorded as such and handled appropriately in the investigation. Should the suspect deny the offence, this information will be insufficient to prove identification.

3.7.6. ‘Caught on camera’ now distinguishes between these two categories of recognition on inSite. Staff must ensure they select the correct category on the still and complete a proforma statement (IDENTIFICATION) or an e-mail (INTELLIGENCE) when they recognise a suspect.

4.0 Equality Impact Assessment

4.1 An Equality Impact Assessment has been carried out and shows the proposals in this procedure would have little or no potential or actual differential impact on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, transgender, disability, age, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

5.0 Risk assessment

5.1 This SOP has been assessed as low risk.

6.0 Consultation

6.1 The following were asked to consult on this document:

• DFU team leader
• DAMS product manager

7.0 Monitoring and review

7.1 This procedure/SOP is scheduled for full review every two years and will be reviewed by the author and owner to ensure it still remains accurate and fit for purpose.

8.0 Security

8.1 Kent Police has measures in place to protect the security of your data in accordance with our Information Management Policy (Policy W1000 – Information Management).

9.0 Retention and disposal of records

9.1 Kent Police will hold data in accordance with our Records Review, Retention and Disposal Policy (Policy W1012 - Records Review, Retention and Disposal).

10.0 Related policies

• N26 Crime investigation
• W6000 Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)
  
  • W 6001 Procedure/SOP – Operational use of DAMS
  • W 6002 Procedure/SOP – Redaction and editing of digital assets in DAMS
  • W 6003 Procedure/SOP – Sharing of DAMS digital assets
  • W 6004 Procedure/SOP – Review, retention and disposal of DAMS digital assets
  • W 1004 Procedure/SOP – Incident reporting and management
  • W 1006 Procedure/SOP – Government Security Classification Scheme (GSC)
  • W 1010 Procedure/SOP – Records Managemment (physical and digital)
  • W 1011 Procedure/SOP – Data Protection
  • W 1012 Procedure/SOP – Records review, retention and disposal
  • W 1014 Procedure/SOP – Information sharing agreements
  • W 1015 Procedure/SOP – Redaction
  • W 1016 Procedure/SOP – Encryption of files and removable digital media
  • W 1017 Procedure/SOP – Sanitisation, re-use and disposal
  • W 1019 Procedure/SOP – Freedom of Information
  • W 1021 Procedure/SOP – Shared and standalone devices
• S01400 Evidential capture, management and presentation
• Q01 & Q01a defendant custody management
• Q01e Video evidence in custody
• O26 Overt use of video by police personnel
• R01 Roads Policing