Agenda item

A report by the Head of Regulatory Services

The CCTV Manager presented the report in two sections:  the first in providing update information in respect of CCTV activity and the second in respect of the CCTV Policy in appendix B requiring a recommendation to Cabinet.

Addressing the first section of the report The CCTN Manager advised members that Boston Borough Council’s public realm CCTV system consisted of digital high definition CCTV cameras and the CCTV control room equipment that covered Boston town centre, Kirton as well as other areas including Boston College, Pilgrim Hospital, Redstone Industrial Estate and Pescod Square.

The CCTV report attached at Appendix A provided a range of performance data for 2019/20 for members to review, comment, query and challenge. The data range in review being from 01 April 2019 to 31^st March 2020.

The Council also monitored cameras on behalf of NKDC, SHDC and ELDC; however, detailed incident data for these council areas had NOT been included in the report.

During the above time period there had been:

§  Recorded 17,106 daily log entries.

§  Completed 3293 incident records.

§  Boston Borough Council received 453 Out of Hours service calls.

§  CCTV operators received 1389 calls for East Lindsey District Council

    and Boston Borough Council combined.

§  CCTV Operators directly contributed to 238 arrests for the Boston Borough Council area, and 471 arrests for the total CCTV area.

§  CCTV Operators produced 184 pieces of evidence from the Boston Borough Council area for Lincolnshire Police / Court use.

§  Operators produced 393 pieces of evidence in total.

The report further included a breakdown of incident categories of crime and anti-social behaviour, with crime data for context for reference.

Referencing appendix B the CCTV Policy, the CCTV Manager confirmed that there had been no amendments to the existing policy and that the recommendation was for Cabinet to agree the continuation of the existing policy.

The Portfolio Holder Councillor Paul Skinner noted his thanks to the small team of CCTV operators who continued to work long hours and provide a key service for the Borough.

At this point in the proceedings’ the Community Safety Manager requested his appreciation be formerly noted, in respect of the work undertaken by the CCTV team during the pandemic.  He advised that the team been decreased by a quarter during that time to vulnerable operators and had run on a skeleton staff which had meant increased shifts and hours for the staff.  Furthermore, not only had the team maintained coverage of all the hours, but they had also taken on additional work handling police imaging reviews. 

In response to a member questioning payment by external businesses for CCTV coverage at their premises, the Community Safety Manager confirmed that Boston College; Pilgrim Hospital, Kirton Parish Council and Pescod Square continued to pay for their service.  However, Redstone Industrial Estate currently did not pay for the service they received.

Negotiations with the people who collected the payments from the various businesses for the service had been put in abeyance due to the pandemic. Committee were also advised that a decision had been made to reduce the number of cameras’ on the site down to two, to cover areas of responsibility of the Council namely the Caravan site and the area on the main road near the car wash facility.  The reduction had been scheduled for 1^st April 2020 but again had been postponed and it was hoped the work would be undertaken in due course.

In conclusion, the Chairman thanked the CCTV Manager for the comprehensive report and asked that her appreciation to all the CCTV team be noted.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.    That Members’ reviewed, commented, and challenged the information presented within Appendix A.

2.       That Members scrutinised the CCTV Policy set out at Appendix B and referred it to Cabinet for continued adoption in its current form.