united-kingdom rules-of-evidence cctv
Can CCTV cameras share an IT network in the UK?
<p>I've just had a conversation with a company who are a &quot;<a href="https://ssaib.org/" rel="noreferrer">Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board</a> accredited intruder alarm system installer&quot;, who told me that their CCTV cameras and network video recorder devices cannot share our IT IP network, even with logical VLAN separation, because it would make images gathered likely to be inadmissible in court because they cannot be shown to be &quot;evidence compliant&quot;. Instead they prefer to have their own IP network dedicated to CCTV only.</p>
<p>The person with whom I spoke couldn't cite a specific regulation that dictated this. In the past I have worked with other installers where the cameras where in a VLAN of the main IP network, and the network video recorder was virtualised on one of the IT servers, again with logical separation. I am now wondering if these are somehow non-compliant.</p>
<p>If someone can help me understand the accurate legislation here, or perhaps cite some design guidelines that would help in court, that would be great. Thank you.</p>

<p>There does not appear to be specific legislation prohibiting the production of evidence from a CCTV system that has been networked to another existing IT system, rather than being isolated to its own unique network.</p>
<p>More generally, the rules of evidence broadly give the courts discretion to decide what is admissable and what is not, including the power to have the authenticity of any evidence tested and proved. This is set out in <a href="https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part32" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Part 32 of the Civil Procedure Rules</a> for civil cases, as well as <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/44/section/132" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 132</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/44/section/126" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 126 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003</a>. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/78" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 76 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984</a> also permits the court to exclude unfair evidence.</p>
<p>The authenticity of evidence supplied from an audio or video recording can be proven by way of expert evidence at court. Just because the evidence came from a dual-networked system does not automatically mean it is unfair (it would be for the allegor to demonstrate that the evidence is unfair) and must be excluded, unless proven by expert evidence or other compelling facts.</p>
<p>In this case, I do not see the problem linking it with an existing IT network and consider that the company you've quoted is mistaken as to the law.</p>
