The University’s plans to install more CCTV cameras around North D has hit a snag. The culprit: our old friend Covid-19.
The new CCTVs were planned to be placed on Union Street, between Campus and Unipol. They had claimed that this move would provide “safety for students and staff” and “take care of both people and property”. However, according to Deputy Proctor Geoff Burns, these high-minded plans have been nixed, for some depressingly familiar reasons: “Phase 3 has been officially off the drawing board for the past couple of years due to the pandemic and the current economic situation the University finds itself in.”
Burns added that the Uni has “no immediate plans for reinstating it.” In a statement, a University spokesperson said that while Phase 3 has been iced for now, “the University supports the Proctor’s recommendation” which includes the “targeting of identified ‘at risk’ areas on a case-by-case basis as the budget allows.” The temporary pause of the Phase Three plan comes as the Proctor’s report highlights an increase of violence and offending “at the higher end of the scale”.
According to the Proctor’s Office, around 90% of requests to review camera footage were from students - primarily due to “damage to property” (including vehicles and bicycles). Indeed, “requests to view CCTV camera footage have increased significantly in recent years from about 50 requests in 2017 to about 240 requests in 2021.” Ben, a student, said: “CCTV cameras are used to punish bad behaviour but it doesn’t necessarily prevent it, which doesn’t seem to me like an ideal solution”.
With all these students viewing CCTV footage come concerns over privacy and misuse of information. Speaking to Stuff in 2018 about Auckland Transport’s CCTV rollout, New Zealand Council of Civil Liberties chairman Thomas Beagle said: “You are setting up a society where the government watches the people just in case, and I find that quite chilling." Some students think the same way, with one telling Critic Te Arohi: “It sounds like the University is just trying to create a tighter level of surveillance culture, which I don’t think should be taken for granted.”
Critic is of the belief that if the Uni can’t see us at our worst, they don’t deserve us at our best.