CCTV is an increasingly common part of our lives. If your car is involved in an accident, there’s a good chance CCTV footage will capture the moment and possibly even reveal the guilty party. But how do you get that footage? It’s not as easy as you might think.
Are you allowed to ask for CCTV footage?
Yes, you can access CCTV footage that contains your image either in writing or verbally. This is called a Subject Access Request or SAR. You should get a response from whoever you applied to within one calendar month of asking.
But you CAN’T request CCTV footage of someone else. And that includes whoever bumped their car into yours.
Can I request CCTV footage from a local authority?
All CCTV footage captured by bodies such as local authorities or businesses is controlled by data protection laws. This is policed by the UK government’s Information Commissioner’s Office. You can request the images but may not get it if it has other people in it.
Operators need to follow strict laws around what they do with any images they capture. These include making sure people know they’re being filmed, saying why CCTV cameras are being used, controlling access to the footage and deleting that footage when it’s no longer necessary.
Depending on the number of cameras it has, an organisation might struggle to find the right footage (Can car insurance get footage?
I’ve been writing about cars and motoring for more than 25 years. My career started on a long-departed classic car weekly magazine called AutoClassic. I’ve since pitched up at Autosport, Auto Express, the News of the World, Sunday Times and most recently the Daily Telegraph. When I’m not writing about cars and motoring, I’m probably doing some kind of sport or working in my garden.
