Latest Thame CCTV Figures

ACCORDING to a recent report, figures available show how Thame’s CCTV cameras are contributing to deterring crime, reducing fear of crime and increasing crime detection.
The figures for the second quarter of 2007 show that CCTV in the town centre was involved in identifying 60 separate incidents in the town, including anti-social behaviour, drug-related incidents and those relating to missing persons.
Two examples given in the report were as follows:

A) The operator heard over the police radio that a man ?was going berserk? in the High Street. The operator gave the specific location and observed the offender until the police arrived and arrested him.

B) The operator observed a group walking from town into East Street. He saw and reported one male kicking cars and causing damage to a wing mirror to one car. Police attended and arrested the man.

According to the report, published by South Oxfordshire District Council, there were 13 CCTV supported arrests, 15 evidence packs prepared using footage, and 20 searches made of the footage during the period.

Evidence packs are packages of recordings which the CCTV operators produce for Police, solicitors and the Crown Prosecution Service for court cases. The same people plus members of the public (they would need to make an application to the CCTV Data Officer) can also request searches; these are searches of previous (not live) recordings for particular evidence/information.

The report stated: “This does not include the routine patrolling of cameras by the operators. The operators patrol the cameras periodically and focus on hotspot areas. Even when they are not being patrolled all cameras are recording 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are set in ?default? positions which are agreed with the Police as the areas most likely to experience problems.”

CCTV cameras, for which town councils pay one third of the running costs, are also installed in the other South Oxfordshire towns of Wallingford, Didcot and Henley-on-Thames.