CCTV deal cracks down on crime
Criminals are finding fewer places to hide in Blenheim as more businesses widen the angle of their own security cameras.
Police have an arrangement with a number of businesses in town whose CCTV cameras also capture what’s happening next to their properties.
Although they would not reveal which businesses played ball, police said the private CCTV cameras helped in detecting and deterring crime well beyond the boundaries of the business.
Blenheim businessman Shaun Forbes was asked by police to alter the camera angle on CCTV outside his panelbeating premises at Nelson St following a serious assault near the site in April this year.
His cameras then caught young vandals walking through his own and a neighbouring site at night tearing up expensive pot plants.
The video was shared on social media and justice was swift.
‘‘We had an amazing result from that. The kids were caught straight away. It was the public who solved that one,‘‘ Forbes said.
He said he knew of other businesses with cameras covering not only their own properties but also public areas who made footage available to police.
‘‘The more the community can sort out the better, really. The police have enough to do. They said they can’t do it without the community to help,’’ Forbes said.
"It’s a great idea, the community working together. That’s the way to go." Shaun Forbes
‘‘It’s a great idea, the community working together. That’s the way to go.’’
Senior Sergeant Peter Payne, of Blenheim police, said police had a good relationship with businesses in the community, and a number of them shared CCTV with police for ‘‘crime prevention and investigative purposes’’.
‘‘For operational reasons we are unable to provide specific details on how many and which businesses we have these arrangements with,’’ he said.
Some people might be ‘‘apprehensive’’ about the arrangement in terms of privacy laws, Payne said.
But the purpose was to ‘‘make sure that our community is as safe as it can possibly be, and so people feel safe when they are out in public’’, he said.
CCTV cameras helped police with crime prevention, and police regularly used footage from the cameras to help with investigations and for evidential purposes in court. ‘‘This helps police hold offenders to account for their actions, and it gives us, and other agencies, an opportunity to help address what’s motivating people to offend,’’ Payne said.
Making CCTV footage available to police was allowed under privacy laws where it helped in preventing and detecting crime, in prosecuting law breakers, and where it contributed to public safety.
Police recently beefed up CCTV coverage in Blenheim and Picton, and businesses were continuing to make footage of public streets, covered by their cameras, available for crime prevention and detection.