CCTV cameras could be switched off in Carlisle

This interesting headline appeared on the Home Page of Cumbria’s News and Star

Carlisle’s Local Authority have got to save money in order to freeze council tax whilst coping with cuts in the government grant and one of the proposal to do this is to reduce its use of the town centre CCTV system.  They want to cut the CCTV budget from £221,000 to £41,000.  The way they plan to do this is to mothball some of the 62 cameras, hand some over to Cumbria Police and not routinely monitor those that are left, suggesting that the recorded images of these remaining cameras would still be available for examination if there was an incident.

Carlisle has already reduced the monitoring of the cameras because the CCTV cameras in nearby Eden were switched off last year with no surge in crime.  The council also make the point that they are under no legal requirement to provide CCTV.

The council have said that if there is strong public opposition they would hope that local business and other organisations would provide the funding to keep it going.

Understandably the comments left by readers have not been too kind!

Calvin’s Comment

I have some experience of town centre CCTV, having worked with consultants and the suppliers to introduce systems in both the London Boroughs of Ealing and Camden.  The evaluation of the systems in terms of reducing town centre crime was very mixed, as it was nationally, with some systems showing definite decreases in town centre crime, some showing no change and others showing increases (some of which was due to the detection of more crime, rather than more crime).   I am therefore a little concerned that Carlisle’s Local Authority should conclude that if it was okay for Eden to switch their cameras off then it’ll be okay for them.  CCTV just doesn’t work like that. 

Whilst Carlisle may not be under a legal obligation to provide CCTV Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act does place an obligation upon local authorities to do what they can to work with the police to prevent crime and back in the 1990s CCTV was one area where the councils came up trumps! It should also be noted that council employee and police officer safety was one of the important uses for monitored CCTV whereby, for example, the camera operator could tell the staff on the street if the person they had been directed to approach was carrying a weapon etc.  And finally, I have to say that images from unmonitored CCTV cameras will be about as helpful as blunt saw.  The whole point of monitored CCTV for town centres was that the operator could zoom in on an incident in order to gather images to be used for evidence.  Without the operator they may as well mothball the lot.

It’ll be great if the local businesses can come to the rescue and fund the system, but I wouldn’t hold my breath as they are just as cash strapped as the councils.  I suspect that what’s going on with CCTV in Carlisle is going to happen in other town centres, so let’s hope than when the economic recovery does begin (whenever that might be) the cameras can be switched on again.