The decision by Westminster City Council in central London to close its monitoring centre and public space CCTV cameras is the cover story for the July 2016 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
We find that besides the latest example of a local government body choosing to pull the plug on its CCTV to save money – the running costs of paying for operators, and the capital costs of upgrading the kit – the decision highlights the fragmented nature of public space CCTV, and the scant prospect of it becoming less fragmented given such decisions.
It’s not all bad news from London on CCTV – we report with words and pictures of the Met Police’s second awards afternoon for good work by council CCTV helping the police to make arrests and solve crimes of all types.
We report also from Liverpool, on a police operation to combat robberies of betting shops and convenience stores, which drew on security marking and other products; and the city centre BID, which is employing meet and greet ambassadors and its own hired police officers, to provide safety and security to business streets.
Also as ever the four pages of ‘spending the budget’ – how UK and overseas sites and end users are using physical, electronic and cyber security; four pages of new products and services; the book review page, featuring a retired guarding company founder’s memoir of the contract guard sector from the 1980s; our regular contributor Una Riley (on a police cadet scheme in Los Angeles) and Jim Gannon (on public safety); and Professional Security MD Roy Cooper’s gossip; and pages for and about installers and installations; and Internet Protocol (IP) networked security. Plus pages of case studies, guarding, travel security, fraud prevention, retail loss prevention, and business security – including the security features of the new five pound notes, and protecting against phishing.
To read the July 2016 issue online visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/online-magazine/27-06-16/26-07/. You can also read back issues going back years at the ‘magazine‘ part of the website.
