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City plans more surveillance cameras

Posted on September 12, 2008, 5:05pm

Mount Gambier City Council will install two more surveillance cameras in the city’s inner business district to combat crime.

Corporate and community services director Grant Humphries said council was in confidential tender and contract negotiations over the initiative, including the possibility of installing cameras which could be “movable” to different locations.

The eight existing cameras are fixed and cannot be moved depending on circumstances or events around the city.

It is not known at this stage where the two new cameras will be placed.

Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce acting president Peter Gandolfi yesterday welcomed the initiative.

“With these new cameras, along with a strong police presence, it will certainly improve the safety of people in the CBD district during the day and particularly at night,” Mr Gandolfi said.

Senior Sergeant Steve Hill also praised council’s initiative to boost the number of CCTV cameras in Mount Gambier.

“These cameras have been fantastic, we have used them on numerous occasions for prosecutions,” Snr Sgt Hill said.

He said the cameras had been useful in not only proving someone’s guilt regarding crimes, but also in traffic crashes.

Snr Sgt Steve Hill said the equipment also helped people feel more confident of being safe in the CBD.

“We hope the community sees it as a means to protect them,” he said.

Snr Sgt Hill said the high-tech surveillance cameras were also a vital tool when patrol officers were called to a disturbance.

“…we (back at the station) can watch the vicinity until the officer arrives,” he said, and explained the valuable information could be given to officers before the arrive on the scene which helped to protect their safety.

Some of the CCTV cameras locations include: the city’s main corner, Ferrers Street, Crouch Street, Wehl Street, Percy Street//Penola Road, Centro Plaza and the Cave Gardens.

“With all the publicity there has been about them, most of the locals are aware they are there, but we have had some people who have committed offences who are surprised when you tell them they have been caught on CCTV cameras,” Snr Sgt Hill said.

He said police and council were in negotiations over ways to make some of the cameras portable, so they could be alternated around different sites.

Asked if the cameras had led to a drop in shopfront vandalism, Snr Sgt Hill said the equipment had yet to help apprehend people who committed this sort of crime.

During these occasions, he said the cameras had been pointed in the wrong direction.

The CCTV cameras installed in the Mount Gambier’s CBD have a 360-degree arch and can be rotated to film different locations.

While police did not have the resources to monitor the footage 24 hours a day, Snr Sgt Hill said all footage was recorded and kept.

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