Chester’s CCTV is upgrading.
The city council is trialling a new piece of digital recording equipment which stores images onto its hard drive rather than having to rely on video cassettes. CCTV operators will be able to provide images more quickly to the police and easily transfer images onto DVD (digital video disc).
What they say
Portfolio-holder for community safety, Councillor Bob Rudd said: “The council is extremely proud of the CCTV control room and its highly-skilled operators. Moving forward with technology is essential to maintaining the service’s excellent standards. This new piece of equipment will make a big contribution to detecting crime and providing evidence which will help the police and other authorities to identify and take action against offenders.”
The city council’s CCTV team has assisted Cheshire Police with several high-profile cases. The control room was established in Chester Town Hall in July 2002 following a £2.5 million Home Office grant for a fibre optic CCTV network. The following year, Cheshire Police developed its city centre police station in the same building. In August 2003, the new community safety centre opened its doors.
