CCTV for offices and business premises

How to cover an office with CCTV

An office carries fewer risks than a shop and more privacy duties. Four cameras usually does it: the main entrance seen from inside, reception and the visitor desk, the comms cabinet or server room door, and the car park or bike store. Eight adds the goods and post door, the fire exits, the lift lobby and a second floor.

Cover the doors, not the desks. The ICO's position is that using security CCTV to monitor or discipline staff without warning will not usually be fair, and its monitoring-workers guidance expects a DPIA before you monitor employees — even where one is not strictly required. A camera on the entrance is proportionate. A camera down a bank of desks is a conversation with your staff and, in practice, a DPIA.

Three places take no camera at all: toilets, changing rooms, and any room where people reasonably expect privacy such as a prayer room or first-aid room. The ICO names toilets and changing rooms directly.

Technically, offices are the easy install. Ceilings sit at 2.4 to 2.8 m, so a 2.8 mm turret or a low-profile dome covers a whole reception from one corner. You rarely need more than 4 MP indoors, and choosing 4 MP over 8 MP means smaller files and more days on the same drive. The cameras run on the same Cat6 as the desks, so a PoE IP kit is the natural fit — but give CCTV its own switch or VLAN rather than sharing the office LAN.

Two things people forget. In a shared building the lobby is often the landlord's, not yours; if your camera records it you are the controller for that footage, so agree in writing who is responsible. And audio: most cameras can record it, and the ICO says it is difficult to justify and that you are unlikely to find a lawful basis. Leave microphones off unless you have written down exactly why they are on.

Finally, put the recorder in the comms cabinet with the switch, on the UPS if there is one, and give one named person the login. A shared password is the most common way office footage becomes unusable.

Sources: The ICO's video surveillance guidance · The ICO's CCTV advice for small organisations