Colleges’ indecision on CCTV
It’s not easy for college authorities. If they put up extra CCTV cameras, they are accused of running nannying institutions, keeping too close tabs on their students, and trying to act in loco parentis. However, if they have rejected this proliferation of surveillance equipment, they are accused of neglecting students’ welfare in the face of serious threats to our safety.
This difficulty, however, does not excuse the levels of indecision and inconsistency shown to exist across the university by this week’s investigation by The Oxford Student. Obviously, different colleges face differing levels of threat, and there cannot be absolute uniformity across all colleges on how many CCTV cameras they have and for how long they store the tapes.
However, university guidelines should be drawn up to prevent absurd situations such asthe one that exists in Balliol, where one of the biggest and most easily targeted colleges in the university only keeps its CCTV tapes for 24 hours. Any crimes reported after this time-lapse would not have been able to use such footage as evidence to apprehend suspects. Balliol is now changing its system, for which it should be applauded.
However, if university regulations existed on the issue, the situation would never have arisen in the first place. At a time when animal rights activists have repeated threats to attack students, this needs to be done sooner.
2nd Feb 2006