Community Safety Partnership
Redeployable CCTV’s
Aims
To provide a portable CCTV solution where such a need has been identified but where it is likely that the need will be short lived. Should the problem re-occur then the equipment can be re-deployed quickly and efficiently.
The equipment can be deployed in a number of locations and the main aim is to gather evidence and the identification of offenders. Where appropriate, other additional supports will be explored with the community, including the use of problem solving, support from the Community Support officers and police.
Approach
A sub-group has been established to oversee the use of the cameras with representatives from the Council’s Housing Department, Strathclyde Police and Community Safety department. This includes the Anti Social Behavior team plus an input from the Community Support Officers.
Methodology
Referrals are received from a variety of sources which includes members of the public, the police and Council departments. The sub-group applies agreed criteria to the referral and provided it satisfies all the criteria then the camera/s will be deployed at the first available date. Signs alerting the public to the use of Re-deployable CCTV in the area will be erected prior to each deployment and removed when the cameras are taken away.
Agencies Involved
South Ayrshire Council Community Safety Team, Antisocial Behaviour Team, Housing, Strathclyde Police. In addition, members of the public and community groups are encouraged to identify areas having problems with antisocial behavior.
Evaluation
Process
An evaluation of the problem is undertaken prior to the decision being made to deploy the cameras. If the decision is not to deploy then the reason for such is recorded and signed off by the chair of the sub-group.
At the end of the deployment a further evaluation is carried out and a final evaluation report is prepared and published.
Evaluation Impact
The final evaluation report looks at the various statistics before, during, at the end of the deployment and a couple of months after the cameras have been removed.
This shows the longer term impact the cameras had on the area.
Reports are submitted to the Community Safety partnership meetings on a regular basis.
Critism
To date the project has been a great success in so far as each area visited by the cameras has shown a marked decrease in the reported incidents of crime and anti social behavior. Most markedly has been the continual decrease of such incidents weeks after the cameras have been removed.
One minor criticism was received from a member of the public regarding the location of a particular camera. He was invited to view the pictures from the camera but he declined.
Potential
The coverage of the number of sites is restricted by the number of cameras available. Obviously with more cameras then more areas could be covered. However to date the number of referrals are manageable with the current resources.
Resources
There is an ongoing cost involved in the deployment of the cameras. Each site is different but on average it costs about £200 per camera to remove and redeploy. These revenue costs will be a constant and therefore without the finance to cover the future re-deployments then the whole project would fail.
