Issue - meetings

The Board received a presentation from the CCTV and Telecare Manager, which had been requested following the completion of an Overview and Scrutiny Topic Proposal, by Councillor S. R. Colella.  The presentation covered the following areas:

• Details of the team, staffing levels and the areas which the team were involved in (including CCTV, Lifeline monitoring and installations, lone worker monitoring and emergency planning).
• The Council’s CCTV Scheme objectives and code of practice (which, although due for review, had been put on hold due to the implementation of new legislation).
• The benefits of a shared service and the role of the host authority, together with the difficulties which had been faced during this process.
• Partnership working, including details of how the CCTV team supported those partners, in particular the Police and the Community Safety Team.
• Routine CCTV functions and the particular areas of interest during the day and evening, for example shop lifters and suspicious behaviour during the day and at night anti-social behaviour in parks and railway station and drunken or lewd behaviour.

The CCTV and Telecare Manager provided Members with details of the number of cameras throughout the district, together with the number at specific locations (for example the railway station) and statistics relating to incidents monitored and investigated, including information in respect of intelligence received from partners.

Following the presentation the Board discussed the following areas and the CCTV and Telecare Manager responded to questions from Members:

• The work undertaken on behalf of the Police and whether the Police made any contribution towards the cost of the service provided – it was confirmed that funding was not provided by the Police.
• Specific incidents (in some cases repeated incidents within the same area) which had not been picked up by the CCTV team and the effect of the Shared Services on the efficiency of the team.
• The priorities of the team – it was confirmed that a Lifeline call would always take priority due to the potential of it being a “life or death” situation.
• Staffing levels at peak times (including shift pattern planning and how this was determined) and training received by the CCTV team – all members of the team undertook initial training and were registered.  An annual audit of the service was also carried out by Telecare.
• The type of cameras and equipment used – the CCTV and Telecare Manager informed Members that the system was approximately 2½ years old and was fully digitalised.  However, when providing evidence for the Police this was copied on to DVDs which were provided by the Police.
• The effectiveness of CCTV as a monitoring tool and any performance measures which were in place.
• Feedback from the Police in order to monitor the effectiveness of evidence provided – the CCTV and Telecare Manager was reviewing how this could be improved, but in the meantime agreed to contact the Community Safety Team Analyst to enquire whether there was any appropriate data available.
• The response time to calls received – it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72