A round-up of some of the latest developments in public space CCTV monitoring.
In the London borough of Bexley, the council is proposing to cease ‘active monitoring’ of its CCTV and instead police will do ‘some’ active monitoring. As the council puts it, this will ‘have an impact on staffing provided by an external contractor’. It would save the council £225,000 a year for four years, towards eight-figure savings overall.
Hackney Council in July officially reopened its revamped CCTV Control Centre in Stoke Newington. It can access about 2900 cameras, and is staffed by up to four CCTV operators, 24 hours. The north London borough has 13 re-deployable cameras. Hackney’s wardens wear body cameras that can be monitored in the control centre. Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, said: “Hackney’s CCTV team has been making a real difference to the borough for over twenty years. CCTV plays a vital role in helping the police solve crimes and in bringing perpetrators to justice, it can also help residents feel safer when they are out and about in the borough.” CCTV was first installed in Hackney in 1993 and the current control centre dates from 2002. The council has downloaded over 169,687 hours of recordings and 174,473 incidents have been caught on camera.
Staffing is the main running cost for councils, as in local government generally. Blackpool Borough Council for example, with the police and Blackpool Business Improvement District (BID) are asking for volunteers to offer a few hours a week, mainly at weekends, to monitor the CCTV at Blackpool Central Police Station.
Police and Crime Commissioners in some parts of England and Wales are proving a source of funding for public space CCTV – and other kit.
Shropshire’s independent PCC Bill Longmore has granted £160,000 for the upgrade of the CCTV cameras and control centre in Shrewsbury. As an aside, Longmore funded body cameras for badged door staff in Shrewsbury; gave £7,000 to ‘Street Pastors’ in Telford and Wrekin; and £20,000 to the Herefordshire CCTV Partnership, for the control room in Hereford to be manned, covering also Ledbury, Leominster and Ross-on-Wye. But to return to the Shrewsbury CCTV system (pictured); it has 39 mostly analogue cameras mainly in the town centre, transmitting over fibre optic cable. The town is looking at going to IP, which could provide besides Wi-Fi hotspots for visitors, and an IP radio system for traders.
Denbighshire County Council will no longer fund or manage the CCTV service from October 31, so as to save the council £200,000 for the 2016-17 financial year. The system is operated in the control room at Rhyl Police Station. The council with North Wales Police and town councils in Rhyl, Prestatyn and Rhuddlan covered by the system has been looking at options, such as to keep the cameras operating and recording, but with no monitoring. Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Lead Member with responsibility for Planning and Public Protection, said: “The council has needed to make some tough decisions during the budget setting process and stopping the funding of the CCTV operation was one of those tough decisions. We recognised the need to potentially have some kind of alternative provision wanted to start discussions with our partners at the earliest opportunity and investigate alternative options.
“The option put forward before Scrutiny [the performance scrutiny committee] would mean that the council would deliver the saving, with a reduced CCTV service being put in place. Further work needs to be done over the coming weeks to develop the proposed model with our partners. However, we must stress that no final decision has been made at this stage.”
