City of York CCTV Investment

The City of York has invested in more than 200 high definition CCTV cameras that are being monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

16:36 11 February 2019

The City of York currently has about 240 CCTV cameras covering a number of schools, the Park & Ride sites, and the entire city centre. The cameras, which are being monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, have been proven to improve the city’s safety and security.

 

James Watson is the CCTV manager for Gough & Kelly, who operate the cameras for the council, said: "We have pursuits through the city which often come to an end due to CCTV being able to coordinate with police and being able to get them in the right places at the right time.

 

"It's a privilege to join meetings with police, licensing authorities, York BID and all those people who are making changes that will affect peoples' lives in the city - from picking up rubbish and clearing streets - and to single out one incident as 'amazing' just falls into the list of things that happen here day to day."

 

The council's head of transport, Tony Clarke, said that the cameras are also being used to improve traffic flow. He said: "We can remotely control the signals but need to see the impact of those works. They are linked to urban traffic control system, and we can change the timings so if there's a particular build-up of traffic, we can adjust that to make sure it better balances the traffic. Similarly, when there's a platoon of traffic coming down the road, we are trying to respond to that to keep things moving."