CCTV for Remote Cumbria

CCTV could be coming to remote Cumbrian towns.

15:52 01 April 2019

Proposals to install CCTV in remote Cumbrian towns are now being considered by crime commissioner Peter McCall and the town’s senior police officers. Factors that are being looked into include funding and the best locations for the CCTV cameras.

 

Mr McCall said: “It is early days but I am really conscious that if I am asking people to pay more council tax, I have to be able to give them something back.

 

“I would love to be able to say to places like Kirkby Lonsdale, Kirkby Stephen, Alston and Millom, that we are going to put a copper back in your village or town. But I have to be realistic because we simply cannot do that. So what’s the next big thing? CCTV is really close to people’s hearts, it does give public  reassurance and it’s a valuable operational tool.”

 

 “We are going to look at those out-of-the-way, hard-to-get-to places like Millom, like Alston, Kirkby Stephen and others. The local neighbourhood police inspectors in those areas have to say to me ‘yes, there is an operational need to put cameras in’.”

 

“It’s important to manage expectations because every parish in the county would want them. The fact is that not every parish in our county, I am pleased to say, does not have serious crime. It may well have low-level anti-social behaviour and while none of us likes that, it wouldn’t necessarily justify us putting in cameras.”