South Ayrshire Council

New Mobile CCTV Cameras

New mobile CCTV cameras have been introduced in South Ayrshire and the Ferguson Street area of Ayr is the first community to benefit from them.

The mobile CCTV cameras are part of a South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership project to reduce antisocial behaviour and help make people feel safer in their local communities.

The cameras can be quickly and easily placed in any location to help prevent acts of anti social behaviour and to support local communities. Once a problem in an area has been resolved the cameras will be moved to a new location, but can quickly be brought back to the area if needed again.

Councillor Margaret Toner, Depute Leader of the Council and Chair of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership said: “The new equipment will be used to tackle some aspects of antisocial behaviour. We have had a number of requests to deploy these cameras already and this shows the publics growing desire to tackle to antisocial behaviour no matter where it is occurring. The cameras are a valuable tool to help deal with youth disorder, serious neighbour disputes, fly tipping and speeding drivers, all of which make peoples lives a misery.”

The Council has more than 95 fixed CCTV cameras situated in all the major town centres in South Ayshire, which help to deter and detect crime and antisocial behaviour. There is often demand for more CCTV cameras to be installed in other areas where antisocial behaviour and fear of crime is becoming a problem. If problems in an area are temporary there is no reason to install a fixed camera, which would remain even after the problem had been dealt with.

Ferguson Street in Ayr was selected as the first location for a mobile camera based on:

The number of reported incidents to the Antisocial Behavour Team and the Police.
The persistence and seriousness of these complaints.
The practicalities of sighting cameras.

Complaints from residents in the area of Ferguson Street have included vandalism, drug dealing, and drinking in public.

Pictured in Ferguson Street in Ayr with one of the new mobile CCTV cameras are (left to right) Chief Inspector Peter McCarroll, Councillor Margaret Toner and Police Constable Bobby Bell.

July 2007