An independent government surveillance agency has expressed serious concern over the widespread use of Chinese-made surveillance cameras by British police.
The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (OBSCC) received responses from 39 of the 47 local police, as well as from the UK Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Police, the Ministry of Defence and the National Crime Agency.
24 CCTV cameras manufactured by Chinese companies or one of the five companies using Chinese components were found in use on the premises. These are Chinese vendors Dahua, Hikvision, Huawei, Taiwanese camera maker Nuuo and US company his Honeywell.
A further 18 respondents said they used one of the five manufacturers for their external camera systems, and 11 said they used that company to supply ANPR license plate recognition kits. .
Hikvision is believed to be the largest supplier of such equipment to police. In fact, at least he supplies two police units with body-worn cameras, the commissioner said.
Additionally, 23 of the 31 respondents operating cameras on drones admitted security or ethical concerns about the manufacturer, the Chinese company DJI.
Concerns that Beijing was spying on highly sensitive camera feeds prompted the government to stop placing Chinese-made cameras on government premises in November, and that such equipment was used by key departments. Decided not to connect to the network.
Ethical concerns stem from the same surveillance kit being used to carry out human rights abuses in parts of China such as Xinjiang.
“From our detailed analysis of the findings, it is abundantly clear that British police stations are being shot at by Chinese surveillance cameras. It is also clear that there is a general awareness that there are ethical concerns with
“There has been a lot of news in the last few days about how concerned we should be about Chinese reconnaissance balloons at 60,000 feet above us. I don’t understand why you haven’t.”
He added that to gain public confidence in the use of invasive cameras, police must use the technology “legitimately, responsibly and according to a set of clearly agreed principles.” .
The commissioner also accused eight police units of refusing to participate in the investigation.
“For both security and ethical reasons, I myself and others need to ask myself whether it is appropriate for public authorities to use equipment produced by such a deeply troubled company. I’ve been saying that for a while,” he concluded.
