Councillors alarmed at addition of private cameras to City of Melbourne’s CCTV network

The City of Melbourne plans to add 60 privately owned security cameras to its network despite some councillors raising concerns about increased public surveillance by private individuals and businesses.

The council already monitors private security cameras on Hosier and Rutledge lanes, which belong to the Trawalla Group – the investment vehicle for rich-listers and philanthropists Alan and Carol Schwartz – and to the Salvation Army.

The existence of 18 private security cameras that feed into the City of Melbourne’s 328-strong CCTV network was discussed publicly for the first time by the council last week.

In a post to social media, councillor Olivia Ball said the plan by the City of Melbourne to quadruple the number of private cameras on the public network was worrying.

“When business CCTV starts to be integrated into the network, then so will business interests,” she said.

City of Melbourne staff monitor the private security cameras and the council’s own cameras from a central control room at Town Hall as part of the council’s Safe City Camera Program and review the footage to alert police or to be used in prosecutions.

As well as adding more private security cameras, the council also wants to greatly increase the use of the footage to enforce local laws, such as littering, graffiti, dogs off-leash and busker licences.

The owners of the private security cameras asked for them to be connected to the network in 2022 but the existence of the cameras and their connection to the network is not noted on the map of the council’s security cameras on the City of Melbourne’s website.

Dean Robertson, director of city safety, security and amenity at the City of Melbourne, told a council meeting last week that it was an oversight that the locations of the private security cameras were not included.

The decision to include the private cameras in the network was not debated at council meetings, and several councillors told The Age they only became aware of the existence of the private cameras on the network in the last two months.

The only publicly accessible record of the existence of the private cameras is in the Safe City Cameras Program Audit Committee Report, which was published online but not debated in council.

Reece said that over the last 12 months, the council had provided 25,000 pieces of footage to Victoria Police from its CCTV network.

“Our Safe City Camera Network is a crucial tool for tracking and deterring crime – and it makes sense to tap into cameras around the city, particularly in hotspots, to help people feel safe,” he said.

“Tapping into private cameras is simply a smart way to put more eyes on the street and give police the back-up they need to keep our city safe.”

Reece’s election campaign last year included a pledge to double the number of security cameras across the city by adding 200 cameras by 2026.

This year, the council unveiled a draft plan to add 100 cameras, including 60 privately owned ones, to its CCTV network.

The Schwartzes were major donors to Reece’s election campaign to become lord mayor at last year’s election, with Carol Schwartz donating $10,000 and Alan Schwartz $15,000.

Elise Gold, chief executive of the Trawalla Group, which manages the Schwartz family’s investments, said Trawalla owned and paid for the initial cameras, which it installed in 2013. In late 2024, the City of Melbourne asked to add another camera to the Trawalla building, which the council paid for.

“Incidents would happen in Hosier Lane or Rutledge Lane, and police would come and knock on the door and ask us to go through the footage, and we would have to go through hours and hours of footage to get them the information which they required,” she said. “At some point of time, this became a considerable amount of work, and it was agreed at some point that the Trawalla cameras would be integrated into the city network.”

Gold said Trawalla has a written agreement with the City of Melbourne about the monitoring of its cameras under which Trawalla pays for the ongoing electricity charges for the cameras and any issues it may have accessing the feed of the cameras.

Trawalla does not pay any fee to the City of Melbourne for monitoring its cameras.

The plan to increase the number of cameras on the City of Melbourne’s network will be funded jointly by the state government, which will pay $3.6 million, and the council, which will pay $2.1 million.

The Salvation Army did not respond to a request for comment.

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