Shropshire Council, as reported yesterday, is running a consultation with the public over its proposals to roughly halve its spending on CCTV staffing of public space cameras covering Shrewsbury, and going over to ‘passive monitoring’ – local government speak for not monitoring at all, and only having the CCTV recording to work from, after incidents. Shropshire points to its need to balance the books, and cut its £600k a year spent on CCTV control room staff to under £300k. As that example shows, it’s not the physical kit, the capital costs, that proves the stumbling block in terms of funding it, writes Mark Rowe, in a review of other parts of the UK.
The Home Office has in recent years run five rounds of its Safer Streets Fund, that some councils have used to refresh their public space CCTV – but those grants may not cover the cost of the people that monitor it. Police are in much the same boat; salaries are forces’ biggest single part of their budget by far. But without people, whether control room operators to pick up suspicious things on camera and alert responders, whether on-street SIA-badged patrollers or police, what’s stopping crime, whether shop theft, drunken disturbances or drug dealing or on-street anti-social behaviour; or, for example, cases of missing people? How to make these sums add up has played out across the UK for years.
A report to Eastleigh Borough Council’s Cabinet by corporate director Dee O’Rourke described the council’s CCTV estate as ‘no longer fit for purpose, and the costs of operation ‘are no longer affordable’. The council looks after 51 cameras in Eastleigh, and four in nearby Hedge End; they’re monitored at The Swan Centre by the contractor Enigma CCTV and maintained and a serviced by Chroma Vision. The council incidentally has nothing against those contractors, the report to councillors describing them as ‘efficient and professional’. As with many other councils, they’re not the only cameras that Eastleigh Borough has; as the report states, ‘satellite CCTV systems’ cover ‘various council assets’ such as the council-developed apartments, Bandstand Court; and Wessex House offices. These and a stand-alone CCTV system for council housing aren’t monitored at the Swan, though, but through other contracts. Eastleigh hired the security consultancy Consultative Solutions, which pointed towards de-commissioning what Eastleigh had – as it doesn’t comply with data protection rules – and carried out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).
The verdict on Eastleigh has applied to other places: ageing kit means that coverage is ‘limited’ and ‘minimal’ and yet residents may have ‘an unrealistic perception of service’ (in other words, imagine the CCTV is more useful than it actually is).
As the report pointed out, Hampshire Police are looking at a new police station for Eastleigh; might the CCTV control room form part of that plan? Councillors agreed to open discussions with the police and crime commissioner. Leader of Eastleigh Borough Council, Councillor Keith House, said: “As a council we’re committed to promoting the safety and wellbeing of residents, visitors and people who work in the Borough. Eastleigh’s out-of-date CCTV network is nearing the end of its useful life. Levels of crime and antisocial behaviour in Eastleigh are lower than in other comparable town centres and with the Council, in common with other local authorities, experiencing a squeeze on budgets, Councillors agreed that the annual cost of more than £300,000 on a non-statutory service is increasingly difficult to justify.
”We’ll be working closely with our police colleagues – and the views of residents, town centre visitors and businesses will be important to helping us develop a more efficient and cost-effective service.”
In Scotland, public realm CCTV by Inverclyde Council based in Greenock had been in some doubt, as the council like any other looked at making ends meet. The council has reported a £75,000 spend on new, digital surveillance cameras. Police Scotland pays towards the 52-camera system; and hosts the CCTV suite at Greenock Police Station. Councillor Paul Cassidy, Inverclyde’s vice-convener of environment and regeneration, said: “The reliability issues with the previous system were well-documented, and action was needed. Thanks to the new system, reliability has vastly improved. We now have more modern cameras with enhanced capabilities, along with reduced running costs for the council.”
As police are the main ‘customers’ of council CCTV, as evidence for investigations of crime, councils naturally have looked to police forces to give some money (which all ultimately comes from the same tax-payers who are served by police and council alike, after all). Response has varied, depending on how well or if at all the council, police and others speak to each other in the first place. Where the various bodies with an interest in community safety have a will, they work out some solution; otherwise, the CCTV service becomes moribund.
In Surrey, for instance, Epsom & Ewell Borough Council has come to an arrangement for local CCTV monitoring with the business improvement district (BID) Go Epsom, Surrey Police and The Ashley Centre, the shopping centre in Epsom, for Epsom town centre CCTV cameras to be monitored locally by The Ashley Centre’s security contractor, Mercury Security. Epsom town centre had 15 public space CCTV cameras installed with Safer Streets Fund money. Shanice Goldman, Chair of Epsom council’s Crime and Disorder Committee, said: “I’m very pleased we and our partners have come to an agreement with The Ashley Centre and their partner security firm, Mercury Security, to monitor the town centre’s CCTV. Over the past two years, the council and our partners have implemented many measures to improve safety and reduce crime in Epsom. Moving to a locally monitored CCTV service, with personnel who are familiar with the area and likely perpetrators, can only improve results.”
In the 2000s, Salisbury City Council’s CCTV system was one of the most high profile in the country. In the austerity of the 2010s, it got switched off; then turned on again, and monitored thanks to volunteers inside the control room at Bourne Hill. The CCTV system recently saw a £25,000 upgrade on added cameras.
Keith Jackson, CCTV Manager, said: “We have recruited and trained many groups of volunteers, and they are doing a great job. We are gradually increasing our team, we have places on a CCTV Operators course in the autumn, which need filling.”
Photo by Mark Rowe; Salisbury from inside City Hall.
