Mr Steve Foote
Video, Audio and Imaging
Metropolitan Police Service

This plenary lecture will look at CCTV as a forensic tool for investigation in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom for better or for worse seems to have more CCTV than anywhere else in the world. There are no standards, scant legislation and very little formal coordination of the recorded information. However, the Metropolitan Police Service has been extremely successful at all levels in utilising the available CCTV evidence in the fight against crime and the causes of crime.

Fingerprints and DNA cannot identify a suspect from 50 metres or tell you what the suspect was wearing, who they were with or what direction they travelled in, but CCTV can. It can corroborate other evidence, provide a powerful visual presentation in the courtroom and act as an impartial witness not swayed by poor memory of the events. However, the increasing popularity of digital CCTV systems has turned recovery, viewing and playback into highly specialised tasks. 

This Lecture focuses on how CCTV has produced successful results in large scale anti terrorist investigations, has saved hours of manpower by directing enquiries and has lead to the formulisation of specialist Investigative units, procedures and technologies to undertake CCTV investigations.

Steve Foote will attempt to relay the hard fought lessons learned and personal experiences of this struggle to utilise the benefits of CCTV as a forensic tool for the investigator. 

Mr Steve Foote is the head of Video, Audio and Imaging Laboratory of the Metropolitan Police Service, London England which examines on average 50,000 video related exhibits each year.

Steve played a major role in the planning and deployment of forensic video services in response to the July 2005 London Bombings for which he received a Chief Commissioner commendation. He has supported subsequent terrorism related cases including Operation Seagram which relates to the recent failed terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow. To date, nearly 100,000 terrorism related CCTV exhibits have been seized and processed. The highly successful application of forensic video services has raised the profile of CCTV and its value as an investigative tool.

Steve has provided 22 years of forensic support to major crime and has specialised in forensic video for the past 12 years. As a practitioner he has been involved in thousands of cases. He is now involved in a number of innovative projects such as development of universal digital CCTV replay technology.

London is often quoted as having the highest proliferation of CCTV camera coverage in the world. Consequently Steve has seen his Laboratory grow to include services such as image enhancement, analysis, data recovery, photogrammetry, Court presentation and other specialist services. The Laboratory also hosts the Counter Terrorism Command CCTV analysis team.