CCTV Control Room Collaboration and Communication: Does it Work?

Despite the increased usage of surveillance systems and the technological advances, there is currently no conceptual basis and little evidence to assess how well CCTV actually works for the purposes for which it is deployed. It is important to identify whether CCTV systems and applications meet stakeholder goals, and support human operators effectively, in attaining the goals for which the system is set up. This exploratory paper highlights the early findings found in CCTV control rooms. A series of ethnographic observations along with semi-structured interviews were carried out at six CCTV public surveillance control rooms – six managers, six supervisors and 25 operators were interviewed. Findings reveal that current control room systems are not designed to support operator and system communication and collaboration when performing their tasks. Poor linked technology and a lack of task coordination was evident between operators and external agencies such as police operators and local businesses. Several Human Computer Interaction (HCI) issues were uncovered from the fieldwork. Findings will be used to form a set of best-practice CCTV control room design recommendations.