Police CCTV among items stolen
POLICE CCTV equipment installed in a chapel near Truro targeted in racist attacks was among hundreds of items stolen from the force, a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed.
In 2008 a pig’s head was nailed to the door of the former Methodist chapel at Quenchwell, Carnon Downs, where an Asian cultural centre was planned. Racist graffiti and Cornish Nationalist slogans were scrawled on the walls.
A CCTV camera, computer monitor and hard drive were installed, but stolen after thieves gained access to the building by removing a wooden shutter from a front window.
The list of 240 items in police possession stolen in 145 thefts over the past four years also included an offside rear tyre from a car parked at Truro Police Station; a security alarm and radio burglar alarm worth a total of £5,000; 13 police hats and helmets; a box of 20 rounds of ammunition; and a Devon and Cornwall Police date stamp.
Fifty-seven of the items taken, including the front door key to Torpoint Police Station, were later recovered.
Other police property taken ranged from batons, fixed penalty notice books and handcuffs to a “Slow” sign and traffic cones.
Other items included deodorant, a plastic racing car toy, three teddy bears and a purple click pen.
There were 33 incidents in Cornwall involving 82 items, 12 of which were in the West Briton area.
These included police property being stolen from stations in Truro and Camborne and from locations on the streets of Hayle, Truro, Falmouth and Redruth.
Truro’s Sergeant Chris Manuel said: “I suppose there’s a little bit of kudos in stealing something from the police, but it’s the same as anybody else’s property. ours doesn’t become immune from thieves just because it’s police property.
“We deal with it in the same way as we would anybody else’s property. we can’t plan for every eventuality – to always be sat in a police vehicle or have a CCTV camera watching everywhere.”
A police spokesman said: “As with any large organisation that has a huge amount of frontline public contact, it’s not that unusual to get a theft either on police premises or related to a police officer or member of staff.
“What the figures don’t suggest is a large-scale theft of items from police officers. What they show is thefts that have occurred in police premises, vehicles or from members of the public who have been in a police station.
“The figures also show a large proportion of the reported thefts result in property being recovered.”
