Councillor Saghir Alam, Rotherham Council Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community, Safety and Finance, has been seeing for himself an installation of new CCTV cameras on Main Street.
New CCTV systems in Rotherham will help prevent, detect and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour across the borough. As a result of the latest installations, Council staff and partners, including South Yorkshire Police, will get easier and quicker access to clearer footage.
The new systems will be used to manage events and emergencies. The Council has also earmarked a further £250k investment to continue to improve community safety by using cameras.
The current investment will ensure cameras in fixed positions and mobile cameras that are moved from site to site are replaced with better models. Mobile units are often sent to ‘hot-spot’ sites reported by residents. Almost 100 fixed cameras and 97 mobile units, some of which can be hidden, are currently in use.
Cllr Saghir Alam, said: “We’re investing in better cameras and operating systems because they’re a key tool in achieving our vision of keeping people safe, a cleaner environment and our neighbourhoods thriving.
“We want people to be able to work together to achieve a good quality of life in vibrant communities in which they feel happy, safe and proud.”
“Crime and anti-social behaviour have a negative impact on people’s health and well-being. We’re doing all we can to keep people safe and these improvements will give officers remote access to all CCTV footage. They’ll no longer need to travel to a camera site to recover footage and this will free up more of their time, to help keep our communities secure.”