News | CCTVImage
Council proposes more CCTV cameras for London Borough of Newham
THE POLICE have backed proposals for more CCTV cameras in the London Borough of Newham, despite the reported low rates of prosecutions per camera.
Tim Donovan on BBC London News recently reported on proposals by Newham Council to increase the number of cameras in the area. Al Thomas, responsible for the CCTV in Newham, commented that the CCTV was helping to provide a real record of crime and incidents to the Police. Newham not only uses fixed CCTV, it also deploys CCTV vans for monitoring ASBO and anti-social behaviour in general. The argument against the expenditure is that out of the 33,000 cameras that Newham operate, 240 crimes were prosecuted on based on CCTV evidence.
Mick Neville, of the Metropolitan Police, commented on the same report. He stated that the questions for how and where the CCTV is located are becoming more important. It is camera positioning and image quality that will make the systems more effective and productive. In addition, Neville stated that getting access to the images and then in time was also adding to the cost of the CCTV operation. This productive element is not necessar- ily more convictions as CCTV should act as an assurance to the public as well as a deterrent to would be offenders. Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham, was also agreeing with having a further detailed debate on the subject.
One in two CCTV control rooms forced to take cost cutting measures, says icomply
RESEARCH BY icomply has shown that the recession has forced public space CCTV control rooms to cut camera numbers, main- tenance levels and staffing in the last 12 months.
The global financial climate in recent years has seen budgets stretched and it is no surprise that CCTV control rooms are among those scrambling to achieve results through reduced spending.
The survey of control rooms in the UK and abroad from icomply found that 48 per cent of respondents had seen their control rooms embark on cost-saving exercises in the last year.
Of the measures taken to cut costs due to the decreasing budgets, six in ten of the con- trol rooms had been forced to reduce mainte- nance costs across their network. Some 39 per cent had experienced redun- dancies in order to cut costs, while 32 per cent had seen staff hours actively reduced. In addition, 17 per cent had taken the decision to slash the number of CCTV cameras on its network.
The figures show the under-pressure budg-
ets of control rooms have seen many forced to undertake a combination of cost-cutting measures, which could leave them subjected to a decline in both staffing levels and equip- ment quality.
Despite the pressure to cut costs, the indus- try is confident CCTV remains a vital tool in aiding the police and a key preventative measure to help cut crime.
Some 89 per cent of respondents said they strongly agreed or agreed that CCTV is ‘very effective’ in capturing crime and 87 per
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cent stated their belief that cameras act as a ‘strong deterrent’ for crime.
However, despite Government spending cut by £11 billion in 2011-12 compared to 2010-11, 92 per cent claimed they saw more Government funding as crucial to improving national CCTV networks in the future. Hugh Barker, the Managing Director of icomply, found the somewhat bleak results of the survey unsurprising. “We’re in the UK’s longest and deepest post-war recession, and the UK economy has been shrinking since 2011. It’s not surprising that so almost half of control rooms have taken cost-cutting meas- ures to combat reduced budgets. “However, our survey found that 26 per cent of control rooms actually saw small increases in budgets for the financial year 2012-13. We also found that public space control rooms were developing ‘spending to save’ projects in the form of outsourcing other departments and companies. 58 per cent either planned to or currently employed these revenue generation methods. A recent Freedom of Information request by Labour MP Gloria de Piero published in the Independent showed that one in five councils have seen a cut in CCTV cameras since 2010.
“We can only hope that public space CCTV will continue to adapt to budget cuts, for the sake of public safety if nothing else,” stated Barker. Visit icomply’s website to view the info- graphics produced from the result of surveys on public space CCTV cuts.
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