Part of a joint initiative between several Melbourne councils, Victoria Police and the Commonwealth government, their usage was criticised during the pandemic when they were deployed to assist enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions.
Liberty Victoria president Michael Stanton said it was not appropriate for Victoria Police to use surveillance units at private businesses.
“We are particularly concerned about the increasing normalisation of the surveillance by police of the general public. People have the right to be left alone,” he said.
He said the right to privacy was now protected by the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, making it a right that must not be unlawfully or arbitrarily interfered with. Any limitation of the right, he said, should be reasonable and proportionate.
The police surveillance unit stationed outside Dan Murphy’s in Malvern East. Credit:Paul Jeffers
“It is accepted that surveillance is used as a tool for deterrence in some circumstances, such as to prevent speeding on roads. That is because there is a real risk of death or serious injury,” he said.
“That is very different from surveilling businesses in circumstances where the vast majority of the public are acting lawfully when going about their daily lives.”
The Australian Law Reform Commission, the country’s peak law review body, has written several reports about privacy invasion. In 2014 the ALRC recommended the federal government adopt a new legal right to enforce serious personal privacy violations.
University of South Australia Emeritus Professor Rick Sarre, a specialist on surveillance, said it was an example of “mission creep” by Victoria Police, the gradual expansion of a project or mission beyond its original scope.
“That is very odd. The public should be very concerned that this is not a public shopping precinct but an individualised targeting,” he said.
He did say, however, that studies had shown that moving CCTV cameras around different locations was more effective than stationary devices.
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“It is mission creep, yes. But then again we have millions of CCTVs in private and public places (mainly private) and the public are not too worried about that,” he said.
Australian Privacy Foundation’s deputy chair Juanita Fernando labelled the cameras “authoritarian”, saying she believed Australians were among the most spied-on people in the world.
“This arrangement abuses people’s rightful expectation that they will not be surveilled by a government device,” Dr Fernando said.
“Our human rights are continuously being assaulted and eroded by authorities misusing technology in ways to hurt people – this is simply the most recent example of authoritarian function creep.”
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