BIGGER BROTHER

Mayor plans saturation CCTV to combat crime rate

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate is planning to super-charge the CCTV network in a bid to slash crime and protect our tourism city’s reputation for safety.

A visit to Taiwan, which has one for every 247 residents, prompted the plan but civil libertarians are aghast.

CITY hall will be asked to spend millions expanding its CCTV network in a bid to establish the Gold Coast as Australia’s safest city.

The security camera rollout will begin next year if Mayor Tom Tate has his way and will see the city’s 530-camera network drastically increase.

But civil libertarians have hit back at the idea, slamming it as excessive and a waste of money.

Cr Tate’s push for more CCTVs comes on the back of his trip to Taiwan earlier this month where he inspected that city’s camera network. Taiwan has more than 10,500 eyes in the sky watching over its 2.6 million residents.

“The lesson is to not sit still and think you have enough just because you reach the magic number – you only will have enough when the police say crime is totally down and we will measure this through its impact on things like hooning and graffiti,” Cr Tate said. “I believe we should further review our numbers for the next five years.

“This has confirmed my belief that an even greater deployment of cameras will

mean greater police effectiveness on the ground.

“Seeing what cities such as these are doing with cameras reinforces my belief we are doing the right thing.”

No specific number of cameras has been determined, but the mayor said he wanted “versatile” cameras which can operate in poor light and at night and deliver hi-definition footage.

The locations will be determined in consultation with police and other experts as part of the city’s safer suburbs forum.

The first round of funding for camera upgrades could be included in the next round of council budget talks, Cr Tate said.

It will come on the back of $1 million in federal funding given towards increasing the network earlier this year.

But Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vicepresident Terry O’Gorman hit back at the proposal as “an immense waste of money” with serious implications for privacy.

“It is a myth that these cameras are a crime preventing measure because research shows CCTV cameras do not stop crime,” he said.

“Frankly, increasing the number of cameras sounds like an immense waste of money because it creates the illusion of safety in public places and to spend that amount of money on an illusion is pointless.”