Steve is a CCTV Control Room Manager and an SIA licence holder. He was an Outstanding Security Officer finalist at the UK OSPAs 2024. He shares his experiences of working in public space surveillance at London’s biggest and busiest public estates and the important role that counter terrorism training plays in a control room environment.
I previously worked in the live gaming industry. After being in a few different roles, I decided to work in the casino CCTV control room. I found I enjoyed it more than the positions I had done before. I didn’t need to have an SIA licence at the time, as I was covered to do my job by a gaming licence. However, I got an SIA CCTV licence when it was first introduced because I was interested in learning more about what it meant.
A colleague told me that a public space estate was recruiting CCTV controllers. I thought that it could be an interesting move. I have worked in public space surveillance ever since. I’ve been at my current site for about 3 years. It’s a big multi-purpose site in London filled with shops, offices and a lot of tourists.
I like knowing that, both individually and as part of a team, what we do has a tangible effect on making the site a safer environment for people that live, work and visit here. No two days are the same. There are set tasks that we complete every shift such as camera and radio checks, and we also respond to a wide range of incidents, which can often develop quickly and dynamically.
Most often this is helping people with directions or dealing with lost and found property. Some incidents can be more serious such as finding a lost child, detecting and preventing crime or helping vulnerable people. Unfortunately, we sometimes interact with extremely vulnerable and unwell people wanting to self-harm or attempt suicide by jumping into the river Thames.
I dealt with my first serious incident a few years ago where someone could have died. Everyone has that one incident which you remember. It prepares you more for the job and is a wakeup call about the importance and seriousness of what we do.
It’s one reason why mental health support is very important. If there is a serious incident on site, we make sure the people involved have a post-incident debrief and are offered counselling. You naturally focus on the people that are physically there, but your control room colleagues can feel the impact too when they are monitoring the incident on CCTV. Thankfully these types of incidents are rare.
We work closely with the local Police. I’ve created and implemented several procedures to make our control room more effective at detecting and deterring crime, whilst being GDPR compliant. For example, evidence packs for the Police, intelligence-based briefing documents and additional logs.
My site is based near London Bridge, which has experienced two terror related attacks. You hope it will never happen, but need to prepare for the worst. Everyone does the ACT (Action Counters Terrorism) training, behavioural detection training, and most of our controllers have now also been on the NPSA (National Protective Security Authority) SCR (Security Control Room) course.
The NPSA course is a five-day immersive experience to learn how to respond to a terrorist attack. It’s as realistic as it can be in a simulated control room environment. We’ve implemented a lot of the learning on site. Every day after our regular radio check we run through our counter-terror exercises. It means the knowledge is fresh for everyone on shift.
In my personal experience, I would say that standards in the industry have risen, and the operatives have become better trained and more professional. One of the most important things for someone wanting a job in CCTV is the right attitude. It means that you are actively engaged, and you want to improve. Whether you are inexperienced and trying to learn, or have lots of experience – if you have the right attitude, you will make a real difference and go far.