Council expands CCTV, ditches facial technology

The Toowoomba Regional Council has announced it will expand its CCTV network but confirmed a controversial facial recognition trial concluded last year.

CCTV cameras. Picture: Christian Morrow

THE Toowoomba Regional Council has announced it will expand its CCTV network but confirmed controversial facial recognition technology had been scrapped. 

The council's community spokesman Cr Geoff McDonald said the council conducted a trial of iOmniscent's facial recognition and people counting technology last year on behalf of the South East Queensland Council of Mayors. 

The trial was criticised as potentially using racial profiling within its software, and a number of privacy concerns were  raised about the trail.

"The reason that the council did the trial was to look at opportunities to explore what analytics were available in the market place and how they could help council to improve its operations and efficiencies,'' Cr McDonald said.

"The analytics were used for people counting to identify how many unique visitors we had to our facilities rather than how many people (potentially the same person multiple times) used our facilities. 

"The trial was a success from the point of view that council learned about new analytics technologies."

Despite this, Cr McDonald said the council had not continued with the iOmniscent technology and does not currently use any other facial recognition technology on its CCTV network.

Toowoomba Councillor Geoff McDonald has said the CCTV network is no longer scanning people's faces. Picture: Tom Gillespie

"Toowoomba Regional Council is currently rolling out Stage 2 of Toowoomba's City Safe Program with upgrades to its network of cameras," he said.

Cr McDonald said 80 per cent of cameras had been upgraded from analogue to digital, with the remaining 20 per cent of cameras to be upgraded this financial year. 

'Stage two will also see the network expanded further, with cameras proposed for the City Golf Club Cycle Walkway, Laurel Bank Park and Clewley Park Walkway," he said.

"Council is also looking at introducing the network into regional towns such as Oakey.

 "Upgrading and improving our system is a continual focus for council as we continue on our path towards making Toowoomba one of the safest regions in Australia."

Toowoomba's City Safe Program was one of the first CCTV programs in Queensland, with the first camera turned on in January 1995.

"The footage has been not only helpful in assisting the Queensland Police Service with crime matters but was vital during the 2011 flood event as it provided real-time footage of what was happening around the city," Cr McDonald said.

"The footage captured has proven to be incredibly helpful and we are now converting all our cameras to digital so we are able to gain a much clearer and more focused image."

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Originally published as Council expands CCTV, ditches facial technology