East Lothian Courier | News | Focusing on whether CCTV is working

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Thursday, 26th June, 2008 08:00

Focusing on whether CCTV is working

Comments (0)

Print Article

A COMMUNITY councillor has called into question the effectiveness of Haddington’s closed circuit television system.

Charles Ingle, a former local councillor, says he’s campaigned for a decade for data relating to the number of court convictions secured due to CCTV footage to be made public.

The CCTV sceptic told the town’s community council: “We need to see how the crime figures have gone up or down each year since it was put in.

“We should be looking at whether this has been a deterrent and how it is used as evidence in court.

“The Home Secretary and others have already gone on record to say that CCTV is ineffective.”

But community policeman, PC Stuart Gunn, said: “I can tell you that what has been captured on CCTV has led to people being prosecuted for fairly serious incidents and has resulted in convictions.

“From a police point of view, if I only used it two or three times and it helped me to secure a conviction then to my mind it is a success.”

Community council chair, Jan Wilson, insisted CCTV had made a positive difference.

And East Lothian Provost, Councillor Sheena Richardson, added: “As a resident of Langriggs, I can assure you that things are a lot better than they used to be. CCTV is a help to the police in the fight against lawbreakers and vandals.”

Comments