CCTV helping to fight crime across region (From Thisisdorset)

CCTV helping to fight crime across region

1:00pm Saturday 1st March 2008

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CLOSED circuit television cameras are proving an indispensible tool in the fight against crime and antisocial behaviour in New Forest towns.

Three towns - Lymington, Ringwood and Totton - plus the Forest's capital, the busy village of Lyndhurst, have cameras linked into New Forest District Council's CCTV monitoring centre at its Appletree Court headquarters.

And it looks likely that New Milton and Hythe will soon be joining the CCTV club.

Meanwhile, New Forest district's Chief Insp Gary Cooper has come down in favour of mobile CCTV cameras.

"In many cases fixed cameras have limited coverage and the activity moves onto areas not covered by CCTV," he said.

"There has got to be a balance between a perception of state intrusion on members of the public going about their business, set against an intelligence-led project to safeguard communities.

"The monitoring, capture, storage and security of such material held within these systems will have to come at the cost to the communities.

"This in turn has to be weighted against the positive aspects of such a system.

"One of the benefits of mobile cameras is that they can be targeted in areas experiencing problems and moved once the problem ceases."

During December, CCTV monitored 83 incidents in Lymington, Ringwood, Totton and Lyndhurst.

In Lymington, incidents witnessed by the CCTV team included a woman who was seriously injured when she fell from a wall, hitting her neck on a kerbstone.

Another incident caught on camera involved two men who attacked a drunken man outside Lymington's Fusion Inn.

CCTV footage led to two arrests in Belmore Lane.

In Ringwood, the monitors picked up an argument outside a late-night eatery in the Market Place which escalated into a brawl. The group dispersed 15 minutes later when police from outside the area arrived at the scene.

In another incident in Ringwood, video footage led to the arrest of a man who breached an Asbo by vandalising a bicycle.

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