Would you hand over the CCTV footage?

[Puttingchildrenfirst]

I can't work out what is the "right" thing to do.

We have CCTV on our house, it Covers our drive, back garden and some of the street outside our house (angled to show our front path and front garden but also catches some of the on street parking).

We checked the legality of it all when we installed it but have had endless problems with one of our neighbours objecting to it. They like to purposefully stand in the cameras view to give us the finger and once even came up our drive to spit on it. To be honest its a wider issue as our old owners used to allow them to use their drive for parking and we stopped that when we moved in, they never got over that.

To cut a long story short... they have had someone hit their car outside ours. They have demanded (not asked mind!) That we send them the CCTV footage of the incident. It does show what seems to be a car going too close to theirs, but doesn't show the occupant or the licence plate.

I'll be honest the CFery astounds me, I want to tell them to take a running jump if they think they're getting help from the cameras that they have complained about since the beginning.

I know we have to give someone any stored images of an individual if they complete an SAR, but I don't think that applies here. But then again I feel like I'm creating extra tension (and being an arse) if we refuse! I would give it to the police if they asked but I can't imagine they'll investigate the matter and just say insurance should handle it.

So would you hand it over (after all it is a crime to hit a car and drive off) or tell them to take a long walk off a short pier?

YANBU - don't hand over footage
YABU - you should give the footage

Sorry, it's waterproof, not saliva proof, apparently.

Delete the footage. Don't help them. If you hand it over - they will use it to prove just how good your CCTV is and just how much it invades their privacy and how it impedes their right to live a quiet life.

I'd go with "since the interaction with the ICO, we have been super-careful with the legalities of the CCTV. We therefore know that we cannot release the footage to you, our hands are tied."
It brings it home to them that they are the authors of their own misfortune.

I would go for “ironic that you’re asking for a copy of our cc tv footage after all your complaints 😂 I take it that if we send it to you this is the end of that?”
And I’d provide it if they reply with something halfway decent.

Tell them you had to adjust the settings as people kept making rude gestures at the camera and setting it off and as such it sadly does not cover the road

Exactly what I was thinking.

I would definitely just send them the footage of them being dick heads, what cheeky people!!

I’d give them the footage (as someone whose car was damaged recently by someone who just drove off, it’s really shit) but I would make them absolutely grovel for it and apologise unreservedly for their previous behaviour first.

GDPR covers this. It would be a no unless through an official channel. The regulations are quite clear. You shouldn't be keeping data pertaining to footage outside your boundary.

Actually this is perfect. Tell them you can only release it to the police.

You could tell them you would be happy to provide it to the insurance company. That's what we do at work.
You have to offer protection for any other 3rd parties and be able to redact their images from the footage. We don't have the facility to do that at work so we only provide it to police or insurance companies never individuals.

Just delete the footage. You don't have to do a damn thing. What if you didn't have CCTV in the first place?

You're not an arm of the police. Citizens aren't required to help solve crimes.

They've hounded us through the ICO, so we've had to tell them in detail what we record, how long for, how its stored, show them what we can see etc etc. It's all above board and been done the right way but it's just another way to mess with us really

With this on top of all the rest you'd consider helping these people ... why exactly?

I don't understand, why did you "have" to tell them what you record, how long you keep it, etc? By what authority?

I've checked the ICO's own website and this is the link to Domestic CCTV Systems:
ico.org.uk/for-the-public/domestic-cctv-systems/

There is nothing about the ICO being able to compel someone to hand over video of someone damaging another resident's car. That I think would be up to the police to demand.

I'd be telling them that if they want the footage, there are legal channels that they are welcome to pursue but that you're not going to hand over any footage based on their demands.

If you have it, send them some footage, cc'd to the police/insurance company of them spitting on the camera and making obscene gestures.
twats.

I would do this too.

If you don’t hand it over are they going to suspect you of being the one that hit their car?

Tell them to jog on....cheeky bastards!!!

Definitely going to tell them to jog on, if they were nice we would have shown them what we had. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wanted to tell them to get to fuck!

Also as someone explained upthread, they're motion activated with an alarmed area so that then turns the camera on. So yes we do watch the clip when/if they alarm it because we tend to see little gems of their behaviour on it!

Not unless requested via the police

😂

Oh this is superb!

Please do this OP.
You can always relent later & give them what they need, in the interests of neighbourly blah blah.

But they SO deserve to see the fruits of their finger-giving labour, coming back to bite them on the arse.

They're deeply petty people Op if this us all about not being able to park on your drive! I'd not be surprised if they try to blame you for their car getting damaged since it's your fault they have to park on the road 😂

Personally, now I've read the fuller story, I'd just say I'd already given it to the police. But that's because I would have a nagging suspicion that this is an invented "crime" and these neighbours think they are being clever.

If they have reported it to the police then great - they will have to switch to annoying the police. If they haven't - well they aren't going to do anything.

Don't worry that you haven't given it to the police[1], quite aside from their having to contend with their own pisspoor systems, you can play the "Sorry, I thought my OH had done it" card.

If (by some miracle) the police do request it (and without a warrant it's only a request) then give them the complete back catalogue and let them find it. If it's there, that is.

Petty ? I haven't even started.

[1]I write as someone who had the local plod "lose" the footage from our office CCTV after a break in. With no record (allegedly) that I had supplied it.

A PP has it right, tell them to get their insurance company to request the footage. I’d do it in the smug knowledge that it would turn out to be useless to them anyway.