Moves afoot to make better use of CCTV

Members of the police force and the Borough Council have been meeting to discuss developing CCTV coverage. They will be visiting the Festival Place CCTV control room at the next meeting of Basingstoke's crime and disorder policy development panel later this month to consider changing the way the cameras are monitored.

There are already 190 cameras in the town centre, with two control rooms in Festival Place and The Malls, and between the opening of Festival Place and the end of March this year, police officers have used 34 CCTV tapes from these control rooms, or individual retail units, to help investigate crimes.

However, the cameras are mainly viewed to gather evidence about reported crimes and, unlike in Southampton or Eastleigh, they are not monitored by shifts scanning several cameras at once for trouble.

Crime reduction officer Simon Bottom has suggested changes to this system in a report to the crime and disorder policy development panel.

He said: "Both control rooms appear very co-operative, contacting the police whenever necessary and releasing tapes, but the situation is far from ideal and Basingstoke would benefit greatly from a single, dedicated control room under the management of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, with a direct link to the police control room."

He added that this would be more efficient and make it easier to accommodate any future growth of the CCTV system, both in the town and rural areas.

"There is clear evidence to show the benefits of CCTV and many good examples of such control rooms in Hampshire," said Mr Bottom.

The panel members are due to visit Portsmouth, where there is a CCTV control room which is regarded as a good example for the rest of the county.

Basingstoke's top police officer, Superintendent Alison Queen, believes the CCTV cameras need to be used more proactively in the town.

She told The Gazette: "We need to use CCTV more as a tool against crime rather than just a monitoring tool."