CCTV Project to Update Neighbourhood Watch

Criminal Justice Management magazine interview with
Safe Cities CEO David Cumming

In many ways similar to a traditional neighbourhood watch scheme, the solution involves teams of volunteers viewing CCTV camera feeds through home-based PCs.

Recognition of the need for CCTV cameras as an aid for public safety has resulted in a great increase in cameras around our towns and cities in recent years. The UK has more CCTV cameras than any other country, with some estimates putting the figure as high as two million. The sheer number of cameras makes it impossible for them all to be continually monitored and many are not even connected to recorders or viewed unless there are exceptional circumstances.
So, while the physical presence of cameras will have a deterrent effect and recording systems can prove useful in criminal investigations, the lack of continual monitoring means the ability to observe real-time situations and react immediately is often limited.
Recognising that this is a real problem compromising the effectiveness of CCTV, an innovative solution has been devised by Safe Cities Ltd, working in partnership with the police, councils and local communities. In many ways similar to a traditional neighbourhood watch scheme, the solution involves teams of volunteers viewing CCTV camera feeds through home-based PCs.
“Many people, particularly the older generation, are community minded but have no way to contribute to policing the community,” explains Safe Cities’ managing director David Cumming. “We are developing a solution where trained and vetted volunteers can be used to monitor CCTV security systems.”
These volunteers, perhaps in the form of CCTV Special Constables, Community Support Officers, or Neighbourhood CCTV Watch, would log into the system through a password and internet connection. They would then be able to select to watch a feed from a small number of cameras, perhaps six cameras at a time, for a chosen shift. Shifts could be variable depending on the time the voluntary CCTV Support Officer (CSO) has available. The CSOs could either choose the cameras they wish to monitor, or alternatively be allocated a set of cameras by a central organiser.
[To date, CCTV monitoring]Trials have involved long shifts of up to twelve hours, it is Cumming’s concern that in this case, “operators get bored very quickly, and the system ends up failing. That was because they were on for a whole day, working eight or twelve hour shifts. What we envisage with our solution is that volunteers would have a spare hour or two, with a designated shift depending on their arrangements. You would try to get the whole spectrum covered, right around the clock. The person would then only be working for an hour or two so they would be able to concentrate. Furthermore, if something came up and they wanted to stop watching then they could sign off and the camera would become available for someone else to use.”
If an incident is detected, a decision would be made by the CSO to summon the Emergency Services immediately or to refer the decision up to a CSO area commander.
A three month consultative process and technical feasibility study with rapid prototyping of the required software (by Safe Cities Ltd) will be followed by a six month period within which pilot projects can be trialled. Following this time period, a further three months of evaluation would follow. Talks between Police Forces and Councils are already underway.
Detective Chief Inspector Geraldine Pearson-Green (recently retired) has taken a close interest in all forms of digital imaging during her career and she maintains that this new initiative will bring major benefits to local communities. “This new National Voluntary CCTV Monitoring Scheme (NVCMS) takes Neighbourhood Watch to a new level,” she says. “In a sense, the community becomes involved in policing itself, leading to safer communities, and increased public confidence and security. A spin-off is the empowerment and reinvolvement of disabled or retired citizens who can now return to a fuller engagement with the community via onscreen ‘patrolling’ of CCTV.”
The financing for the scheme may be central or local government allied to a variety of commercial and charitable entities. A public/private partnership scheme could be partly sponsored by relevant socially responsible companies wishing to contribute to the public good. A web based scheme would allow proven internet technologies, in place already, to comprise most of the needed infrastructure. Safe Cities has pledged to reduce software costs for each CSO monitoring terminal to a minimum for the CCTV monitoring software. Safe Cities will also allow free use of its proprietary new automatic face recognition software on all CSO terminals to allow watch lists to be used where CCTV pictures of sufficient resolution and adequate angle of view, are available for such automatic processing.
Cumming says: “This idea instantly provides you with top quality intelligence and surveillance. The important thing is that it also provides a lot of people who feel helpless against a flood of crime in their communities, with something they can do to counteract it. Even an elderly person, who is unable to act on their feet can still sit in front of a monitor and do everything that is required of them for an hour or two. It empowers people. The Labour Party is talking extensively about community involvement to try to reduce crime and this seems tailor made for that.”
“Prime Minister Gordon Brown has signalled that he wants to see greater community participation in Policing, Neighbourhood Watch, and other socially supportive and cohesive activities. I believe this project is in the best spirit of the Prime Minister’s intentions. We all want more bobbies on the beat. We all want safer neighbourhoods. A National Voluntary CCTV Monitoring Scheme could be an effective way of achieving that aim and making neighbourhoods safer.” CJM
Words and Interview: Keith Broomfield