Person of Interest Identification

CCTV cameras - why do Breckland Council have them?

Breckland Council (the Council) use CCTV and surveillance to help deter inconsiderate behaviour, protect our residents and public places, whilst observing offenders who may seek to harm our communities and break the law. CCTV can provide crucial evidence to enable enforcement action and prosecution, where appropriate, of such offenders.

The Council's CCTV cameras are generally located within key areas of public activity such as town centres and high streets, primary roads and car parks, but also around sites and locations where problems have been known to occur, or where issues have developed previously.  Sometimes CCTV is present on private commercial land owned or managed by the Council.

Most CCTV units are stationary and will remain in the same place for a long period of time, whilst other cameras may be moved to 'hotspot' areas, depending on the requirements and necessity. 

Surveillance signage will be present within the vicinity of the area where the cameras are located.

To view our policy on the use of CCTV and surveillance, see the below link:

View CCTV Privacy Notice - Breckland Council

Data - what is it?

CCTV and other surveillance will capture various situations and incidents, as well as images and videos of people, including some of their personal characteristics.  This is known as data. 

To view our policy on the use and protection of data, see the below link:

View Data Protection Policy - Breckland Council

How does Breckland Council use the captured data?

On occasion, it may become necessary for the Council to use captured footage or images to identify particular person(s) of interest.  This does not always mean that they are suspects under investigation, and may include people who could provide key information, or a witness account of an incident, or someone that may be involved with an issue, incident or offence that is the subject of the investigation.

 Some Officers within Breckland Council regularly conduct investigations where the use of CCTV and surveillance is required.  These investigations may include:

• Waste offences and environmental crime
• Environmental health concerns and hazards
• Regulations and planning breaches
• Licensing and commercial offences
• Anti-social behaviour within our district.

Any information provided to Breckland Council in respect of the Persons of Interest Identification page will be managed by the Environmental Protection team in line with the consent form below:

View Consent Statement - Environmental Protection (PDF) [90KB] (opens new window)

What other surveillance does Breckland Council use?

In addition to CCTV, images and footage may be obtained by relevant officers via overt surveillance cameras, body-worn cameras and dash-cam.  Data from these devices will be reviewed by the specific officer(s) in control of the camera usage.

On occasion, images and footage may be sent in to Breckland Council via third party or members of the public, which provide evidence of offences and environmental crime being carried out.  When this occurs, this data may also be handled in the same manner as any other CCTV footage / images captured, provided this is with consent.

Sometimes the data captured will be used by the police for criminal investigations, or to other authorities.

What other steps do investigators take to identify offenders?

Officers will try to carry out methods to identify person(s) of interest before using the surveillance identification page, including:

• Local house to house inquiries with local residents, businesses and properties associated with the person(s) or vicinity to the incident/issue.
• Direct engagement with members of the public, with a hardcopy of images to help with the identification of person(s) of interest.
• Share the images of the person(s) of interest with partnership agencies such as police officers and other authorities.

If there are no more lines of enquiries to consider, the Council may then choose to seek the support of the public in identifying the person(s) of interest by sharing the footage or images obtained by CCTV and surveillance cameras on to the Council's website via the Person of Interest identification page. 

Council considerations

The Council will utilise the surveillance identification page if the following criteria is met:

• All other means of identification have taken place without success, or without viable witness accounts
• The offence(s) are significant enough, or in the public interest, to justify public sharing of images and footage
• The person(s) of interest are believed to be 18 years old and over
• That this action will deter, detect or evidence crime, disorder and other offences

Person's of interest are not always considered as suspects under investigation, and may include people who could provide key information, or a witness account of an incident, or someone that may be involved with an issue, incident or offence that is the subject of the investigation.

Any successful identification will lead to the relevant image/footage taken down from the website as soon as possible, however the image/footage will be kept by the Council until the investigation is concluded, or within the timeframes of the Data Protection Policy.

How can you help?

If you wish to help Breckland Council with identifying person(s) of interest, please click on the button below.

Visit our Surveillance Identification page

All viewers including members of the public, third party associations and media organisations should not copy, share or publicise the images and footage beyond this website.