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CCTV cameras are being introduced on local streets in an effort to increase the level of security in and around our town centres.
Last month the local board allocated a total of $20,000, divided between the areas’ two local community patrols, for stage one of the CCTV rollout.
However, the involvement of the community patrols– a group of volunteers who patrol local areas and report back to Police – is limited to just obtaining the funds.
Hibiscus Coast Community Patrol leader Sandra Sweetman says her organisation, which is a charitable trust that works closely with Police, knows that Police are keen to have CCTV, and Police recommend where the cameras should be placed.
When it comes to the details of how the money is spent, she says the patrols are guided by local board chair Gary Brown.
Brown has been liaising between the community patrol, Police and Safer Cities, an organisation whose work includes consulting on CCTV set ups.
Brown says he suggested that the community patrols apply for the funding to get the CCTV coverage underway with a plan produced by Safer Cities.
He says the cameras introduced initially will be licence plate recognition cameras – three in Ōrewa and three in Whangaparāoa. In Ōrewa, they will be located in Centreway Road, Grand Drive and Hatfields Beach. In Whangaparāoa town centre they are looking at putting them near Coast Plaza and the intersection of Whangaparāoa Road and Red Beach Road.
This is stage one, with two further stages (additional cameras) to come – as yet unfunded.
The applications for the initial funding stated that the cameras “will operate 24/7 with real time image information stored for a period so that authorities can review it at any time to assist them in investigations as needed”.
However, Waitemata North Area Commander, Inspector Matt Laurenson, says the VGRID Safer Cities platform (which connects the cameras with Police) provides live CCTV footage only and is not stored by Police, or by Safer Cities.
The office of the Privacy Commissioner is clear that putting up a CCTV or surveillance camera can get a strong reaction from the public. Its survey in 2020 found that 41 percent of people over 18 years old were concerned about the use of surveillance cameras.
However, Scott Bain of Safer Cities says there are no privacy issues with licence plate recognition cameras, which focus on stolen plates, or “plates of interest” – as opposed to those with facial recognition technology.
Cameras funded by the Silverdale Area Business Association, and some installed by individual businesses, have been in operation in the town centre for several years.
