Cameras in Toilets

[hardtailstar]

That's not too bad then; and the key there is transparency and communication to involved parties. Do you get many new intake parents asking about it? Is the view physically confined rather than blanked out via software? I suspect the latter would be the no-go area for me, just in case - if a camera can't be moved to view something it shouldn't then you are on excellent ground should someone kick up, but if X member of staff can access and unblank a part of the screen, that's a possibility most won't take!

 

No idea if parents ask about it, we dont deal with it.

 

The view is blocked out by the wall and by software.

[CHiLL]

We've recently been converting our standard boys/girls toilets into open plan unisex floor to ceiling toilet cubicals. We don't have cameras placed inside or looking directly in, but we do have some placed that are in the corridor nearby or looking in that direction. The toilets are also either adjoining or opposite staff offices, which have either one-way windows in the joining wall, or in the door looking directly down the length of the toilets.

[synaesthesia]

Some interesting takes on this certainly. One thing that it's worth mentioning is that CCTV, like many other methods of processing personal data and privacy, should be pretty much a "last resort" - the risk assessments involved all ask if other methods to achieve the same goal have been considered prior to going down the chosen route. Open plan, unisex toilets, "unfashionable" music playing; some cracking ideas! Although for the latter, how bad does it have to be? Generally what we find bad, they find good, and what they find bad, we find good! (I dread to think of the issues should we start blasting Vengaboys!)

[mikes]

Another post here, our brand new school built and planned by our local authority, has cameras in the toilet areas, although the toilet areas are just corridors perpendicular to the main corridors, all rows of cubicles, so anything you can see on the CCTV, you can see with your own eyes when you walk down the main school coridoors anyway. They could easily convert them to unisex toilets just by removing the "boys" and "girls" signs.

 

I wouldn't be a fan of installing CCTV that can see "sensitive" areas and relying on software to block out these areas. In my experience the software can go wrong, or if the cameras are PTZ, the motor can fail without the software realising, so you end up with a moving privacy bar but no moving picture. If the camera froze on this sensitive area, then the privacy bar could scroll out of the way revealing it. IMO it would just be too risky to rely on. I'd make sure the cameras are only fitted where they can never see anything sensitive just incase.