CCTV report may be exempt on safety grounds: DCC

DERRY City Council says it needs more time to decide whether a comprehensive publicly funded review of Londonderry’s city centre CCTV should be disclosed to the Sentinel in the public interest.
CCTV tender.CCTV tender.
CCTV tender.

The Council believes some or all of the review - commissioned by Derry City Council last December and conducted by Analysys Mason - may be exempt from disclosure on health and safety and law enforcement grounds.

The Sentinel recently reported how two years after the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) ordered an investigation into the procurement of CCTV provision in Londonderry, Derry City Council is again inviting tenders for the city centre surveillance project. Back on May 24, 2013, the Sentinel launched a Freedom of Information request with both the PSNI and Derry City Council asking for copies of “any reports commissioned by the PSNI - jointly or solely - into the City Centre Initiative CCTV operation in Derry over the past two years?”

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The paper relaunched the FOI request this month but still hasn’t received the Analysys Mason report, which evidently exists, according to the tender documents published by Derry City Council last month. The Sentinel wants to publish the report’s contents in full for the benefit of its readers, many of whom paid for it, and all of whom will be subject to surveillance under the CCTV system.

Now the Council says it needs more time to weigh up whether or not to release the report to the paper in the public interest. It says some or all of the report may be exempt from release under sections 31 and 38 of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 31 exempts information if its disclosure would be likely to, prejudice law enforcement. Section 38 exempts information if its disclosure would be likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual, or endanger the safety of any individual. The Council said it will provide us with a response by October 25.

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