CCTV monitoring hours to be cut

[Alex]

Taken from this weeks HT, this is not good news but great for the criminals

CRIME-fighting CCTV in the county is under threat as cuts of £50,000 in the next year will see a reduction in live monitoring.

Leominster town councillors were told at a council meeting last week that the monitoring hours for CCTV across the county are to be slashed down to almost half.

According to Councillor Peter Ellis – who has been liaising with Herefordshire Council about the future provision of CCTV in the county – the current monitoring hours will be cut from 127 hours a week to 69.

This means that although the cameras will continue to roll consistently, there will not always be someone watching – sparking fears that some crimes could go undetected.

Funding from Herefordshire Council is to be reduced by £50,000 in 2013/2014 and then a further £32,000 in 2014/2015.

Debbie Stringer, commissioning officer for CCTV, said the reduction for this year will be covered through funding reserves.

“Whereas the system will continue to record 24 hours, seven days a week, there is a risk that the level of real-time footage monitoring could be affected,†she said.

But additional funding has come from an “old friendâ€. West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore has applied to put an additional £50,000 towards the cost of running CCTV in the county.

And Herefordshire councillor Peter McCall said that despite the cuts, CCTV – which costs Leominster Town Council £10,000 a year – is “still good value for moneyâ€, adding that the time it saves is “phenomenalâ€.

He added that the footage can still be replayed to help find an offender.

Proposals will be implemented from April, subject to negotiations with town councils.

[Biomech]

I've never been a fan of CCTV, a camera doesn't stop a crime, it just means someone gets to watch. Even if it goes to court, the footage is often barely admissible.