The Milton Keynes CCTV system was featured last Tuesday night in the first of a two-part BBC1 documentary called CCTV: You Are Being Watched. The second part will be broadcast tomorrow (Tuesday, May 15) at 9pm on BBC1.
The city’ CCTV system may save police and the other agencies in the criminal justice system millions of pounds every year, according to a report commissioned by the Community Safety Partnership (CSP).
An evaluation of the system in Milton Keynes at the end of 2006 looked at crime files featuring CCTV evidence, the CCTV team’s workload, interviewed representatives from a range of criminal justice organisations as well as investigated the financial benefits of the system. The researcher findings have just been made public.
Paramjit Boyal, from the Milton Keynes CSP, said: “The Milton Keynes system is operated in partnership with Thames Valley Police, which manages the system on a day-to-day basis and is run by civilian police staff with Milton Keynes Council retaining overall ownership and providing resources for the maintenance of the system.
“The Community Safety Partnership, which commissioned the evaluation, is delighted at having a CCTV system which is clearly making a valuable contribution to the safety of our residents and visitors and also generates substantial savings in police time and resources for agencies involved in community safety.”
The consultation highlighted that CCTV is a valuable resource which can be used to manage police resources, help investigations and collate intelligence.
Some of the main benefits, outlined by the experts, include the ability for CCTV operators to direct officers to offenders who have fled a crime scene.
CCTV evidence is also available at the time a suspect is interviewed, the operators monitor public calls to the police about incidents in the city, they can locate people wanted by police and can alert officers of an incident so that they can intervene at an early stage. They can also provide intelligence on behalf of the police and its partners.
Researcher Katy Owen said: “The review identified a wide range of benefits to the criminal justice system, and for some of these the cost savings were identified. Indeed the savings to the criminal justice system are at least £12,000 and potentially up to almost two million pounds. It is likely that this is an underestimate because not all of the benefits could be costed.
“Although the savings quoted are not cashable they are savings in police officer time which can then be used more productively.”
The CSP comprises MK Council, Thames Valley Police, Bucks Fire & Rescue and MK PCT together with representatives from local groups including the Probation Service, Drug Action Team, Race Equality Council and others from the borough’s parish and town councils, Charity, voluntary and business sectors.
