TL;DR: A door security guard at a local venue harassed me, negged me, and asked for my number, which I refused. In retaliation, he banned me from entry and admitted to saving, showing, and sharing CCTV footage of me from a night I was intoxicated to venue staff and other local security teams. I have reported this to venue management (currently waiting on the Operations Director), the SIA, and the police (who closed the case due to lack of physical proof, though I am challenging their investigation). Seeking strategic advice on next steps, GDPR/ICO complaints for CCTV misuse, and how to pressure management to take action.

I am facing an ongoing situation involving abuse of power and targeted retaliation by a door security guard at a local venue I regularly visit, and I am looking for strategic advice on how best to navigate this. To be entirely clear, I have committed no wrongdoing whatsoever; this whole situation stems from me repeatedly rejecting a security guard’s improper advances and calling out his unprofessional behavior, which he has now responded to with retaliatory action.

The misconduct started back in May when I had too much to drink on a night out. While I was in a vulnerable state, a male security officer on duty pulled me into an alcove off public view, where he made inappropriate remarks, negged me to lower my confidence, and adjusted his trousers around his genital area. Weeks later, when I returned, the same guard targeted me again by asking for my personal phone number, which I firmly refused to give him. Fast forward to September, when I attempted to enter the venue, this guard refused me entry at the door purely as a form of retaliation. During that interaction, he explicitly admitted that he had retained CCTV footage of me from that night in May, had shown it to the entire venue staff to justify banning me, and had even saved and shared that footage with staff at neighboring venues and security teams at other places where he works.

I have taken extensive formal action to address this clear misuse of CCTV and power. I immediately escalated the matter internally to the General Manager, and after contacting executive management, I was informed that my complaint is being passed directly to the Operations Director, whose response I am currently waiting to hear back from. Externally, I have filed a formal complaint with the Security Industry Authority (SIA) regarding his professional conduct, as well as reporting the unauthorized retention and sharing of footage to the Metropolitan Police.

The police recently closed their file citing a lack of independent, physical evidence showing the footage left the internal system, but I have already followed up with them challenging whether they adequately audited the venue’s CCTV access logs, retention policies, and data handling practices.

Given that the police are reluctant to act without explicit physical proof of data exfiltration and the venue’s internal review is still underway with the Operations Director, I would really appreciate strategic advice on my next steps. Has anyone successfully dealt with GDPR or ICO complaints regarding security staff holding onto and sharing CCTV footage for personal vendettas, and what is the best way to push the management to take immediate action against this rogue guard?