WAR ON STREET CRIME AT RISK
January 18, 2007 1:16 PM
Installation of CCTV saw significant investment by local authorities and police forces in the mid-1990s, now all these systems are a decade old. Additionally the number of cameras per system has tripled, an average control room oversees over 100 cameras (Barnstaple has almost 90). Renewed Home Office funding is needed to ensure that these systems continue to be effective.
Nick Harvey was dismayed to discover just how antiquated Barnstaple's CCTV systems are. Also concerned at the delay of the Home Office's and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) CCTV review Nick Harvey raised the issue with Tony McNulty Minister of State for Policing, Security and Community Safety.
'I am far from happy about the government's oft delayed CCTV review and its refusal to commit to future modernisation funding,' said Nick Harvey. 'This has a direct impact on Barnstaple and other communities such Ilfracombe, the hospital and local schools, which utilise CCTV in the war on street crime. The Government itself admits that existing CCTV provision is a bit of a mess.'
'Despite the UK having more public space CCTV cameras than any other country in the world,' notes Home Office Minister Tom Mc Nulty, 'its CCTV capacity had no strategic direction control or regulation, and little was known about the detail of provision at local authority level.'
Over the last five years £170 million has been spent on developing 684 existing systems countrywide. In addition the Building Safer Communities (BSC) Fund provided local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) with 74.2m in 2004/05 and the partnerships anticipated the same allocation for 2005/06.
'CCTV has proved a highly effective deterrent in public areas such as town centres,' comments Nick Harvey, 'and its time the Government outlined its policy toward the modernisation of aging CCTV systems across the country.'
When pressed on this issue Home Officer Tony McNulty refused to commit the Government: 'I cannot comment on the prospects for future central Government funding at this stage, as it would be wrong to speculate until future policy in relation to CCTV is agreed.'
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