12.5 Coastal Safety Camera Network (CSCN)
Purpose
To provide operational guidance regarding the use, governance, and capabilities of the Coastal Safety Camera Network (CSCN).
Overview
The CSCN is comprised of Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) cameras installed at various locations, enabling broad coastal and aquatic situational awareness.
The CSCN is operated by the State Operations Centre (SOC) to support lifesaving operations, emergency response coordination, and approved inter-agency operations.
The main objectives of the CSCN are:
- Non-continuous monitoring of coastal and aquatic environments, including beaches, boat ramps, and water,
- Earlier identification of persons in difficulty, incident scenes, or other operational events,
- Potential identification of last known positions of a missing person or vessel to aid in the formulation of search and rescue plans,
- Remote monitoring of high-risk incidents to improve member safety,
- Making a positive impact to emergency management of coastal areas, and
- Making a positive contribution to approved research and coastal safety initiatives.
The CSCN is an operational safety and situational awareness system and is not intended for continuous public surveillance.
Camera availability may be affected by environmental conditions, connectivity, maintenance, power outages, or operational limitations.
The CSCN supplements, but does not replace, physical patrol operations, rescue capability, or direct observation by lifesaving personnel.
Procedure
Operational Use
An SLS service may request support from the SOC to monitor the CSCN to support SLS operations.
The SOC will assess operational capability, availability, and appropriateness of the request.
To maintain privacy standards and network security, access to live CSCN vision is restricted to authorised personnel and approved operational purposes.
Vision Requests
Requests for vision from SLS services must be directed to the SOC via phone using the contact details outlined in SOP 12.2 – State Operations Centre (SOC) – SURFCOM.
Vision requests from building security CCTV may be managed by the SLS service; however, the SOC must be notified if the request relates to an SLS-related incident, such as a drowning, so that the request can be recorded in the incident log.
Surf Club / Service CCTV
Surf clubs and services must not independently operate unsanctioned rescue monitoring or tasking systems that duplicate or undermine the CSCN operational framework.
Building security CCTV and “surf cams” are not included in this requirement.
References