CCTV CAMERAS

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Residents are demanding that closed-circuit television cameras are fitted in part of Chaddesden because of a "crime wave" which is blighting the area. People living in Kinross Avenue claim that their street and the surrounding area has become a hot spot for house burglaries, car thefts and general loutish behaviour since the nights started drawing in. Francesca Vallely is organising a petition to present to Derby City Council urging the authority to consider fitting CCTV cameras in the area after she and her son were victims of crime on two consecutive nights this week. Ms Vallely's son had recently been given a Vauxhall Nova as a 21st birthday present from his family but it was stolen, before being abandoned and torched nearby.

The day before, the van that Ms Vallely uses in her job as a delivery driver was broken into by thieves while it was parked outside her house. Her handbag, which contained £70 along with credit cards and personal effects, was stolen. Ms Vallely said, "Every year it's the same. When winter comes and it gets dark early, we get gangs of young lads causing trouble." She said that things were so bad that she and other residents were now planning to approach the council and plead for CCTV cameras to be installed. "We had a meeting with the council last year but they just said there were not enough funds," she said. "We're going to ask for another meeting."

Belinda Pell said that residents' lives were being made "hell" as a result of the "crime wave". She said, "We've been told that there's nowhere to put CCTV cameras but I and several other residents own our property and we've volunteered for them to be put up on our houses, but this has been ignored." Police have said that there were no particular trends to show that crime became any worse in the area as the nights draw in. PC Carol Hardwick, who is seconded to the Derwent Community Team, Beaufort Street, said that better street lighting would soon be installed in the area. Mobile CCTV cameras will also be introduced next year, she said.

Neighbourhood wardens, a joint initiative between the Crime and Disorder Partnership and Derby Homes, are also working in the area and PC Hardwick has promised to inform them of the problems. PC Hardwick said, "If the police are made aware there is an issue, then we can do something about it." Ward councillor Suman Gupta said, "There's a lot of work going on in the Derwent ward but, unfortunately, none of it has been in time for these residents in the Kinross Avenue area. We're aware of these issues and we're already working together to make it a safer place."

Derby Homes has CCTV cameras covering more than 1,000 of its properties, most of which are in blocks of flats. The organisation is now increasing the number of CCTV cameras it controls to cover more than 400 houses on the Old Sinfin estate. It is also consulting with residents, community safety groups and police about plans to extend the cameras to the Osmaston and Austin estates, to cover at least another 400 homes in each of those areas.

Phil Davies, chief executive of Derby Homes, said, "We're responsible for houses, but we're also responsible for the estate. Our interests are in making the estate popular, safe and not subject to problems with burglary and vandalism. We can do that by dealing with individual tenants, but we have to recognise that we have an obligation to look at what else we can do in a wider sense." Mr Davies said he hoped that the cameras would act as both a deterrent to anti-social behaviour and a source of evidence when crimes were committed.

He said, "We've got to accept that there are issues that happen on estates from time to time and it can be very difficult to get the evidence, because people remain very reluctant to come forward to give evidence." Derbyshire police said there had been 274 reported house burglaries in the Sinfin area last year, down from 397 the year before. Derby Homes also plan to install CCTV in Osmaston and Austin and has set aside £100,000 from the anti-social behaviour initiative Supporting People. It will also be seeking funding from community groups and the police to help cover the cost of the CCTV cameras being installed and monitored.

Derby businesses have been asked to double their contribution towards the cost of operating the city centre’s closed circuit TV camera network. The annual cost of running the 17 security cameras is £90,000. In their first annual contribution, businesses donated £9,000 but are now being urged to donate £18,000 for the year 2000/2001. Derby’s City Centre Management Team is responsible for raising a percentage of the annual running costs. Within the next four years, the target contribution required from businesses will rise to a maximum of 50%, £45,000.

Derby City Council would have to cover the cost of any targets not met. The management team was pleased that the initial target had been achieved. But, as only 41 of the 1,000 businesses in Derby made a donation, it is appealing for more firms to contribute. City centre manager Dave Best said, “We need to underline to people that some businesses are on board, so why aren’t they? But the fact that businesses have helped to fund the scheme shows a growing partnership responsibility in Derby.”

Police and councils are considering monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras. The microphones will be able to detect conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before they become violent. The equipment can pick up aggressive tones on the basis of 12 factors, including decibel level, pitch and the speed at which words are spoken. Background noise is filtered out, enabling the camera to focus on specific conversations in public places.

If the aggressive behaviour continues, police can intervene before an incident escalates. Derek van der Vorst, director of Sound Intelligence, the company that created the technology, said, “It is technically capable of being live 24 hours a day and recording 24 hours a day. It really depends on the privacy laws in a particular country.”

Graeme Gerrard, chairman of the chief police officers’ video and CCTV working group, said, “In the UK this is a new step. Clearly there is somebody or something monitoring people speaking in the street, and before we were to engage in that technology there would be a number of legal obstacles. We would need to have a debate as to whether or not this is something the public think would be a reasonable use of the technology. The other issue is around the capacity of the police service to deal with this.”

According to a spokesman for Richard Thomas, Britain’s information commissioner, sound recorded by the cameras would be treated under British law in the same way as CCTV footage. Under the commissioner’s code of practice, audio can be recorded for the detection, prevention of crime and apprehension and prosecution of offenders. It cannot be used for recording private conversations. The Association of Chief Police Officers has warned that a full public debate over the microphones’ impact on privacy will be needed before they can be introduced. (Source: Times Online, Nov/06)

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