Residential security camera laws: a guide for tradies

Can electricians get into deep water if you capture footage you shouldn’t with a security camera you installed?

• Security cameras are everywhere
• The laws on what you can and can’t capture are complex
• You can have a security camera on private property but think again about recording voices
• The good news is that it’s unlikely a tradie installing cameras would ever be held responsible for the footage captured.

Whether you’re walking along a busy street, sitting in a park or having a drink in the pub, it’s more likely than not you’re on camera – security camera, that is.

In the last decade, the number of CCTV cameras in Australia has doubled to about 1 million. About 300,000 of those are in NSW, with a recent report listing Sydney as the 15th-most surveilled city in the world.

When it’s your job to install security cameras, where can and can’t you point these prying eyes? Are you legally responsible for anything dodgy they record?

Public vs. Private

The rules governing security cameras differ from state to state, but the basic principles are similar. Put simply, you can install a surveillance device wherever you like, as long as it’s on private land, explains Rick Sarre, an Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the University of South Australia.

“If you’re on public land, you can’t. Full stop,” he says. “You can’t just wonder if a park has some [dodgy people] running through it at night and install a surveillance device, and later go back and retrieve it.”

What of the footage collected?

Here’s where it gets a bit more complicated. “Let’s say you’ve got footage of two people standing outside your property having a conversation,” Prof Sarre says.

“If you can’t hear them, that’s fine. If you’re simply photographing things, that’s fine. If you can hear them, it’s now potentially an offence, because they are not aware they are being taped.”

Where the blame lies

The very excellent news for electricians who are installing security cameras is the laws are rarely your problem because, says Prof Sarre, “The person who is instructing you is the person who’s responsible.”

“It’s a bit like a so-called newspaper defence where if someone publishes an advertisement that contains a falsehood, the newspaper is not liable because they can’t check every advertisement that comes to them in the 24-hour turnaround between lodging the ad and publishing it,” he says.

Prof Sarre says electricians are simply another person along the supply chain. “There’s the person who designed the surveillance tool, who built the surveillance tool, who sold the surveillance tool and who installed the surveillance tool for the person who has actually decided to employ it.

“An electrician would have a complete defence by saying all they were doing was following the instructions of their principal.” For non-legal types, that’s your client.