POLICE COMMISSIONER’S “LACK OF LEADERSHIP” ON CCTV
Surrey's Police and Crime Panel have unanimously called on Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Lisa Townsend to produce a new CCTV strategy within 3 months, after a cash-strapped Tory Council was forced to decommission its CCTV cameras because of lack of police support.
Conservative-controlled Reigate and Banstead Council has decided to decommission its public realm CCTV cameras outside car parks, after Surrey Police's decision to stop monitoring CCTV at Reigate Police Station from next year. Decisions are expected from other councils in East Surrey, which are also monitored by the police from Reigate, and other councils across Surrey.
At its meeting on Monday 21 November, the Police and Crime Panel unanimously agreed the following resolution:
"The Panel recommends the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey takes a lead on renewing the county's CCTV strategy in partnership with local authorities, and publishes the renewed strategy within the next three months."
Panel members from all parties criticised the current piecemeal approach. Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Kennedy, who represents Mole Valley on the Panel, said:
"In September 2021, the PCC told me she had requested a review of Surrey Police's CCTV strategy, but over a year later we are still waiting, and as a result decisions are now being made which are against the public interest. The PCC's approach seems to be to leave it to individual councils to install and monitor their own CCTV cameras largely at their own expense, even though the primary, and in many cases only, users of those cameras are Surrey Police.
"Surrey Police's current CCTV strategy is not fit for purpose, and the PCC urgently needs to take a lead. As local planning authorities with community safety responsibilities, of course Surrey councils should have a say on the location of CCTV in their own boroughs and districts. But it is far more expensive and inefficient for individual councils to set up their own CCTV schemes than for Surrey Police as the main user to coordinate.
Reigate and Banstead Council's decision to decommission its CCTV cameras reflects its own financial pressures, but is the wrong decision for the people of Reigate, which is Surrey's 2nd worst borough in terms of women feeling safe in town centres. Residents are crying out for safer streets, and we deserve better than the current dog's breakfast of piecemeal CCTV provision across Surrey."