Council CCTV manager Darren Pollington is sceptical of journalists – why, then, has he let BBC and ITV cameras into his control room, and why does he recommend it to other managers (with previsos)?
He speaks to Mark Rowe.
Darren Pollington at Wakefield Metropolitan District Council let the regional BBC new cameras for the Look North programme into his control room all day, for a report of only five or six minutes. “But,” Darren adds, “they did put over that we are here for a reason.” More specifically, Darren sought to put across – and he feels Look North did pick up on it – that the council CCTV is not only there to catch the criminals, but it works for the safety of the law-abiding, such as lone females walking to the car after dark.
Forums
Does he recommend other council CCTV set-ups doing likewise, offering access to TV news-makers? Yes, Darren replies, first making the point that local authority cameras are not cloaked; they are there on the street, known by the public. He says of his council’s CCTV: “We have tried to promote ourselves; having forums with councillors, and public forums.” The council is installing a new camera scheme in Ossett. The council only went ahead after public meetings and gathering of views of councillors, shopkeepers and pub landlords. As background, the council has a 135-camera system, covering besides Wakefield, Castleford (pictured) and Featherstone; the villages of Hemsworth and South Emsall; and Pontefract, which went live in 2002. Darren is a stalwart member of the Public CCTV Managers Association, and is a member of the association’s training working group. To return to the Look North publicity, Darren suggests that before fellow managers follow suit, they ought to make sure that everybody involved is on board – such as police, if they are mentioned. Equally, Darren woudl expect the same of police, if TV were featuring the police while covering the local authority CCTV. Councillors and especially staff should be asked, Darren adds; do operators want to be filmed, identified? Darren was personally happy to be; some staff were not.
Pet hate
Darren says: “Sit down first – because that’s what we did with the reporter and cameraman, and said, ‘this is what you can do, and what you cannot do’.” And if the media do not stick to these dos and don’ts, they do not get an invite again. One of Darren’s pet hates, that he did not want TV to repeat, is the phrase ‘spy in the sky’. In short, Darren has gained trust in the TV people who have come through his door; and that may mean TV return to do more features. For instance, the control room has had ANPR installed, with a police ‘interceptor’ team under a sergeant acting on the alerts from car registration plates captured.
