Much ado about nothing? An analysis of the Polish CCTV regulation process
Much ado about nothing? An analysis of the Polish CCTV regulation process

Summary/Abstract: Video surveillance, or Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), remains one of the most contentious issues in contemporary surveillance debates. Since the early 1990s, the United Kingdom has been portrayed as the “surveillance bad boy” of Europe: a liberal democracy oversaturated with CCTV systems. Poland, on the other hand, has largely evaded academic scrutiny in this regard. A post-communist polity undergoing an unprecedented expansion of video surveillance, the EU frontier state has become the leading “nation under CCTV” in Europe, earning the unflattering moniker of “surveillance Eldorado.” Despite this, similar to the UK, Poland lacks dedicated legislation regulating video surveillance practices, and public debate on the issue has been minimal. Civil society actors, data protection authorities, and even law enforcement agencies have long advocated for a regulatory framework in this field, but with little success. This situation is particularly puzzling, given the country’s recent history under a repressive communist regime that extensively employed surveillance tactics. It is therefore noteworthy that a legislative process was initiated in late 2013–early 2014, aimed at curbing “the Big Brother state,” with a particular focus on video surveillance. Questions circulating in the public discourse at the time—such as “Why wasn’t this addressed earlier?” and “What are the chances of passing such legislation during the current parliamentary term (2011–2015) or the next (2015–2019)?”—were well founded. By 2020, they were supplemented by another: “Why did the process initialized in 2013 ultimately fail?” The answers may lie in the anti-surveillance sentiment that was prevalent in the aftermath of the ACTA protests, as well as in a reconfiguration of actors and narratives as expressed within the policymaking arena. This paper seeks to explore these issues. It begins with a brief historical overview of video surveillance practices in Poland and past regulatory efforts, followed by a discussion of the consultation process preceding the “Anti-Big Brother Act.”

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