Caught on camera

7:00am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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NOT only is Big Brother watching you but it will nick you too.

Figures released by police in Bournemouth have revealed that town centre CCTV cameras have played a part in solving 277 crimes this year.

“CCTV plays a very important part in solving crime. Some- times it is a very small part, other times we are making arrests purely because of what our cameras have told us.”

Dorset Police’s CCTV liaison officer Martyn Webster

From incidents of criminal damage and public order to allegations of indecent assault, the town's new big budget CCTV system is helping police fight and solve crime.

Police chiefs in London claimed that investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime has failed to have a significant impact and use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor.

But figures for Bournemouth paint a very different picture.

Dorset Police's CCTV liaison officer Martyn Webster said CCTV footage from Bournemouth played a part in bringing charges in 62 crimes last month (April). CCTV evidence was included in bringing charges in 27 incidents of public order, 12 assaults, eight criminal damage and two indecent assaults.

It assisted in charges being brought in 86 cases in March, 76 in February and 53 in January.

Martyn Webster said: "We have cameras in places we didn't have before. It's much more extensive because of the investment the council has put into it.

"CCTV plays a very important part in solving crime. Some- times it is a very small part, other times we are making arrests purely because of what our cameras have told us."

He said last month an alleged offender was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault as a direct result of CCTV evidence collected after the victim contacted the police. Officers managed to look through the CCTV footage and track the alleged offender to his home address. The case is now going through the courts.

Mr Webster believes CCTV cameras also stop incidents from escalating.

"All the key places in the town are covered. At the moment if we get an incident outside a club or pub we can get on it straight away. We have excellent CCTV operators who alert the police and we can nip it in the bud. If we didn't have it I am quite sure these incidents could get out of hand."

The new CCTV system in Bournemouth - which has cost £1.9m to upgrade over the past three years - is still being installed and will see 137 high-definition cameras monitoring the town centre, seafront and Boscombe. There are also plans to expand it into Charminster and Winton.

Each camera's footage is stored for 31 days at eight frames per second - requireing the memory storage space of 90,000 home computers.