Keeping an eye out for crime and unruly behaviour on Essex streets
DRUNKEN brawls, pickpockets and missing children, Matt Walsh and his team of watchmen see them all.
The diligence of the CCTV operators who monitor Chelmsford, Witham and South Woodham Ferrers, resulted in 445 arrests in 2011.
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crime prevention: Safer Communities Manager Spencer Clarke in the CCTV control room
As the CCTV team leader, Matt, 32, is responsible for overseeing the operation which monitors more than 350 cameras.
In teams of no less than two, the operators keep a close eye on a wall of 45 screens 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Witnessing nine incidents a day on average, the operators work in shifts and break from their observations for about five minutes every hour.
“CCTV isn’t nine-to-five, it’s 24/7, 365 days-a-year and you need to be alert, even at quiet times,” Matt told the Chronicle from the bunker beneath the Civic Centre in Duke Street, Chelmsford.
“A quiet night like Sunday is when a break-in is more likely to happen so we need to be alert at all times.”
Such vigilance by Matt and his team recently assisted in the foiling of a large-scale shop raid as thieves were caught red-handed making away with thousands of pounds worth of goods.
Matt said: “In the early hours of the morning a few months back, we saw three or four guys walking across Bond Street car park with holdalls.
“The store detective of a Chelmsford department store had rung in to say that the store alarm had gone off, so we linked that to the incident we had witnessed with the guys acting suspiciously in the car park, informed the police, and it turned out that those guys had approximately £25,000 worth of stock from that store in those holdalls.”
As well as busting crime, the operators monitor daily and nightly events, such as busy shopping days where they scour the crowds for suspicious characters, shoplifters and pickpockets, while liaising with retailers and pub staff through a digital radio system called Town Link.
“Town Link is great. it doesn’t fail,” said Matt. “If we get a call regarding a shoplifter,we know we’re going to have people to deal with it,” Matt said.
At night, they help bouncers keep order outside bars and clubs.
“There has been an increase in problems on Wednesday nights as it is now driven by clubs and bars doing drinks deals,” Matt said. “This has attracted more people and more trouble.
The operators are also on the lookout for missing children.
Matt, who is a father-of-two, said: “If there’s a missing child, we drop everything to look for them. I’ve got kids myself so I know how it feels.”
As a watchman, Matt is often a key witness to crimes.
He added: “We get called to court if anything happens. We don’t enjoy going to court but it’s part of the job. You just have to look at the positive outcomes.”
The CCTV operation, which costs Chelmsford Borough Council around £355,000-a-year to run, works closely with the police, the fire and Rescue service, Essex Probation and NHS Mid Essex in what is called the Community Safety Partnership.
The effectiveness of the partnership was recognised and rewarded by the World Health Organisation in 2010, which designated Chelmsford a Safe Community – the only one in the UK.
The Community Safety Partnership sets key priorities which the CCTV team can then monitor and provide key information on. One of the priorities for 2012 is tackling antisocial behaviour.
There are some groups opposed to the use of CCTV systems.
Big Brother Watch recently described CCTV on its website as “an indiscriminate intrusion of the privacy of innocent people and despite the high cost to our privacy, it does little to make us safe.”
Spencer Clarke, the community safety manager, said: “The Community Safety Partnership gauges the public’s perceptions of crime.
“It has recently found that 96 per cent of people are in favour of CCTV which isn’t unusual. Public perceptions of CCTV have improved since the summer riots.
“If systems are well run and used appropriately then people have less of a problem.
“We use the systems for crime prevention not for things like people parked on double yellow lines. it is proportionate and fit for purpose.”
Matt added: “I’m not aware of any negativity. I think we’re well received by members of the public.
“We never really get calls and if we do, then we explain what a camera is there for and what it does and that works well, as does inviting people in.
“My view is if you’re not up to anything then you have nothing to worry about.”
As part of a programme to educate the public on community safety, local school groups and youth organisations are often invited into the control room.
Mr Clarke said: “There was one time we had a group of children coming in to visit us and as they were waiting outside for us, our cameras caught several of the more boisterous members kicking a wall. So when they got into the control room, we showed them the footage of their behaviour and joked with them that the police were on their way!
“The group leaders were so embarrassed but it was very funny.”
Fact File
From Jan 1 to December 23, 2011, there were 445 arrests attributable to the CCTV control room in Chelmsford.
There were 3,293 incidents caught on CCTV of which 1,185 were instigated by proactive CCTV monitoring. Many more incidents were dealt with before they required police attention.
There are more than 350 cameras in operation across Chelmsford, Witham and South Woodham Ferrers, the towns monitored by the control room in Chelmsford. Approximately 50 more are going to come into use across Witham in early 2012.
The CCTV system costs £355,000 per year to run. this is currently mostly funded by Chelmsford Borough Council.
There are plans to link the operation to other areas, in particular Maldon.
A survey conducted by the Community Safety Partnership at the beginning of December 2011, which sought to gauge people’s perception of crime found that 96 per cent of people are in favour of CCTV, 66 per cent wanted the use of CCTV increased, 27 per cent wanted it left the same and only 2 per cent wanted it decreased.
There are ten core and five casual staff involved in the operation and monitoring of the cameras.
During busy hours, there are three operators, with the third team member taking emergency calls.
There are 74 Street Pastors who work directly with the CCTV operators. These are Christian volunteers who walk the streets between the hours of 10am and 4am, helping vulnerable people and reacting to anything amiss which the operators spot in or busy areas.
