Surveillance cameras play massive role in crime fighting
Big Brother’s watchful eye seems to be a thorn in the side of criminals in Plettenberg Bay following the arrests of two burglary suspects in Bitou earlier this month.
According to local crime fighters, surveillance cameras have become a major deterrent for would-be criminals over the past few years. Charnel Hattingh, head of communications and marketing with the Fidelity Services Group, said on 11 April they received a call that two intruders have been caught on CCTV camera surveillance while breaking into a liquor store in the Plettenberg Bay industrial area. “The owner of the store saw the suspects on a video feed he was monitoring from back in Cape Town where he lives and he raised the alarm,” Hattingh said.
She added that armed response officers were sent to the address and managed to detain one suspect, while his alleged accomplice evaded them.
“Thanks to the use of modern technology and with the backup of boots on the ground, this suspect was quickly handed over into police custody.”
In an unrelated incident in Nature’s Valley on 19 April, another suspect was apprehended after breaking into a residence in the area.
“Our monitoring centre received an alarm signal from the address on Forest Drive and sent an armed response officer to investigate. When he arrived, he noticed an unidentified person still inside the house and ordered him to come out. Instead, the person chose to run to the other side of the house to possibly try and evade being apprehended.”
The armed response officer called for backup and with the help of a colleague they were able to detain the suspect before he was handed over into police custody.
In Plett these surveillance cameras have proven to be very valuable assets with hundreds of different cameras being monitored by the Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association (PBCPA) control room – a combined effort by Smhart
Security and Plett Security.
These cameras include live view units across the coastal holiday town, CCTV cameras using an intelligence programme alerting control operators via pop-ups when issues arise, Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) cameras to address road related crime and solar wi-fi cameras in remote areas.
PBCPA operations head Otto Olivier said that the LPR cameras have proven very useful. They scan more than 100 vehicles a day of which about 20 notifications per day of vehicles with possible links to crimes are sent to the PBCPA control room and this leads to about five successful interventions per week.
“Crime in areas where there are cameras has definitely dropped. Most people are picked up before crime is committed,” Olivier said.