In north London, Brent Council has a new CCTV control room at the Civic Centre, across the road from Wembley Stadium. Councillors on Brent’s cabinet had heard in March 2017 that the old analogue system, installed in the mid-90s, was “archaic” and would cost more to maintain in the long run. Hence councillors approved a ยฃ2.3m upgrade.
Tom Miller, Brent’s Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, said: “The old system served Brent well for over 20 years but needed replacing, and now our residents can rest assured that our public spaces are being protected by the very latest digital system. It will lead to better surveillance and help our security patrols and the police respond to incidents more quickly. It’s been designed so it can be integrated with digital innovations in the future, and over time it will actually save us money as it won’t need the same level of maintenance as the old analogue system.”
The updated control centre has a new monitor wall with 14 big screens. The council plans more high definition (HD) cameras for the town centres and more deployable cameras for hotspot locations, or for when issues arise quickly.
The refurbished control centre will be manned all year, and share information from the cameras with police at nearby Wembley Police Station. For more about CCTV in the borough visit https://www.brent.gov.uk/.
