Tory cuts risk crime wave by forcing councils to switch off CCTV - crime-mongering watchdog

The UK is having its CCTV cameras switched off by councils who can’t afford to keep them running, the government’s surveillance camera watchdog said, warning of a deterioration in crime-fighting standards amid the government’s biting austerity cuts.

Tory cuts risk crime wave by forcing councils to switch off CCTV - crime-mongering watchdog Cctv-1.si

Tory cuts risk crime wave by forcing councils to switch off CCTV - crime-mongering watchdog Cctv-1.si

For Tony Porter, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, this is an alarming development. Britain is one of the most heavily-dependent countries in the world on CCTVs’ ability to help police tackle street crime, with its 4-6 million cameras, according to The British Security Industry Association (BSIA).
Porter told The Independent that not only are select councils in England and Wales playing a “postcode lottery” in tackling serious crime, they are also threatening greater danger by cutting on training and hiring inexperienced camera operators, which often means inadequate training on legal issues as well.
A former counter-terrorism officer, Porter blames the Tory government’s austerity cuts.
He has already written to council chief executives about the problem. At this week’s CCTV User Group conference, he listed several examples in “large towns like Blackpool and Derby,” where monitoring was cut around the clock by local councils, all without consulting the public.
"Because CCTV isn't a statutory function, it is something a lot of councils are looking at,” he explained to BBC Radio Four in a separate interview. Because councils don’t have an “absolute right” to monitor a community, there is increased need to keep people’s trust, and that can’t be done “if there are going to be training and compliance issues.”
“Most people recognise the utility of CCTV for supporting law enforcement,” he told the Independent. “To degrade the capacity may have an impact on police – and given that both police and local authorities aren’t protected in terms of their funding, it is potentially going to have an impact on how the police gather evidence. It may well be that they find it increasingly difficult to acquire the imagery that will help them investigate crimes.”
The solution, for Porter, is for public service providers to face more accountability for their actions. Setting up a system with regular inspections could go a long way to achieving that.
Councils’ current legal role only means they have to “encourage, review and advise,” something Porter argues needs to be increased.

http://rt.com/uk/261593-cctv-surveillance-britain-money/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Tory cuts risk crime wave by forcing councils to switch off CCTV - crime-mongering watchdog

Tory cuts risk crime wave by forcing councils to switch off CCTV - crime-mongering watchdog

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