Fighting street crime with cameras

Outdoor terrorism, public disorder, street violence, Saturday night fever, Red Bull syndrome - many terms are used to describe the increasing incidence of unprovoked assaults, particularly on and by young people. The reasons given for the violence differ; the solutions are potentially infinite. But one measure business communities are embracing wholeheartedly is Garda closed-circuit television monitoring or CCTV.

Gardai have welcomed the introduction of such camera systems as an aid to policing, but warn that it is not a "panacea" that is going to put a stop to street crime. Cure-all or not, the idea has taken off.

Garda CCTV has been in use in Temple Bar and O'Connell Street in Dublin city centre for the past three years, and for two years in Tralee, Co Kerry. It is scheduled for "prioritised" installation in six other locations: Bray, Cork, Dundalk, Finglas, Limerick and the area around Grafton Street in Dublin.

In addition, a CCTV advisory group established by the Garda Commissioner has so far received 42 other applications or "expressions of interest" in the system, from cities and towns from Ardee, Co Louth to Westport, Co Mayo.

So intense is the demand that the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, ordered a review, soon to be complete, of all aspects of CCTV. Funding is in most cases being provided jointly by local community interests and the Department of Justice.

A mini-system has been in operation in Limerick's O'Connell Street and Cecil Street for some years. According to Chief Supt Noel O'Sullivan, it has been very effective. "It prevented many serious incidents because we were able to get to them in time. It was also used as important evidence in a particular murder case last year," he says.

Chief Supt O'Sullivan, who has responsibility for Limerick city and county, says the expanded scheme with 27 cameras has been supported by the Chamber of Commerce, and by Limerick Corporation as an aid to traffic flow.

"Unfortunately we can't have a Garda on every corner," Chief Supt O'Sullivan says, adding that CCTV can be the technological equivalent. "We have a lot of complaints about noise at night and public order offences. These are not going to make headlines, but to the ordinary Joe Soap who's living on a street where these incidents occur it is a major priority."

Mr Brendan Woods, chief executive of Limerick Chamber of Commerce, says: "We are hoping the cameras will be in operation for the New Year." The H-grid system on which the streets are laid out in the downtown area will suit the CCTV system and give more effective coverage than in other cities or towns, he says.

CCTV schemes have resulted in lower crime levels in British cities, where they have been operating for years.

In Cork city centre, "we're at a very advanced stage in the development of CCTV", according to Supt Kieran McGann of Anglesea Street. "The new room is set up and the monitors are on-site, ready for installation."

He believes the cameras will help the Garda get to scenes before a "potential situation develops". He insists, however, that the root cause of public disorder is "excessive drunkenness". With the advent of the Celtic Tiger, "people have more money for liquor and people are drinking more. The `Saturday night fever' situation is there".

Ironically, while Cork had quite a problem last year with public disorder, things have improved considerably this year. Supt McGann puts this down to Garda co-operation with publicans, discos and nightclubs. Another important tactic is ensuring that patrons do not take glasses or bottles out on to the streets.

At the weekends, when the pubs, discos and nightclubs close, up to 15,000 people can be in a small number of Cork city centre streets at the same time, creating the potential for volatile situations. The new licensing laws might also have had an effect. As well as seeking the co-operation of businesses, gardai also "pump up the volume" in terms of their presence at the weekends. Supt McGann stresses that policing is the responsibility of a number of people. "If licensed premises are going to be throwing people who are totally drunk out on to the streets when they close, there could be total disorder," he says.

Anglesea Street gardai have organised a kind of training conference for pub and club owners and door security people. It included an explanation of the liquor licensing laws and criminal procedures; items on drugs awareness and how to prevent drugs being used on public premises; and advice to door security and other staff on showing courtesy in order to get "voluntary compliance".

Tralee, Co Kerry is where the CCTV initiative was first launched, and the system has now been in operation for two years. Chief Supt Fred Garvey says that "we've made quite a number of detections of crime", but that one of the CCTV's strongest benefits is in improving public order. It is a positive measure and will be part of the future of Garda operations, he says, "but it cannot be seen as a panacea for crime".

The "practicality of the situation with CCTV is that the camera covers an amount of ground. A man on foot takes some time to get to a scene and can only cover, say, one street, but a 360-degree camera in the right location can cover four streets. Then you need the Garda personnel to respond, so your operational policy changes in how you police it. We will need to co-relate the two to fit the demands of policing today," says Chief Supt Garvey.

He says CCTV has been successful in the case of a beating where someone has been badly hurt and Garda were able to call the ambulance directly, rather than waiting for someone to make the call. There was no delay in finding the person after the attack.

As to the criticism of CCTV as creating a "police state", Chief Supt Garvey says: "We can't be naive about today's world. There are a lot of unpleasant people in it, and the cameras covering an area will help people feel a little more secure about walking on the streets."

Mr Bob Casey is president of Tralee Chamber of Commerce, which pioneered the use of CCTV when it started lobbying nine years ago. The town was the location for a pilot project to assess the system, and the business community committed itself to paying almost half of the £600,000 capital costs of installing the 24 cameras.

However, he is very disappointed that the system is not operated on a 24-hour seven-day basis, due to the lack of sufficient personnel. This, he believed, was a Department of Justice situation and not one for the local gardai to deal with. They should "put in the funding to put in the manpower".

Each camera costs in the region of £30,000. To fill one Garda post on a 24-hour or three-shift basis would require five gardai, allowing for leave and holidays. One garda on pay and pension costs about £30,000 a year, which would put operating costs of one CCTV garda post at £150,000 annually - one of the reasons for the review of the system in the light of demand.

Mr Denis Naughten, Fine Gael TD for Longford-Roscommon, has raised the issue frequently. He believes the problem is a combination of three factors: drugs, both legal and illegal; the dramatic changes in society in the past 20 years; and the lack of resources provided for youth services.

Youth services and sports have been hugely under-funded for years. "If young people have nothing to do and are hanging around idle, they are going to get into trouble. Trouble always seems to peak during the summer, because it's when young people are out of school," he says.

Dun Laoghaire has been the focus for much comment about unprovoked attacks and petty crime in the past week. Supt John Dunne, with responsibility for Dun Laoghaire district, points out, however, that "the incidence of such crime in this area is quite low".

But Dun Laoghaire will be getting CCTV. "The bonus for us is that we would have a view of spots where people congregate and are likely to commit public order offences or rob a handbag from a passer-by," says Supt Dunne.

Gardai have identified eight priority locations covering the core of the town on Upper and Lower Georges Street, on Queen's Road and Windsor Terrace at the seafront, on Northumberland Avenue and Patrick Street. CCTV has been on the agenda since 1997 and the ducting cables are being laid, although when it will all be complete is another question.

Garda closed-circuit television monitoring systems are currently in place in three locations:

Temple Bar, Dublin

O'Connell Street, Dublin (North Central)

Tralee, Co Kerry

The next tranche of installations are in the following six locations:

Bray, Co Wicklow

Cork city centre

Grafton Street, Dublin, and surrounding area (South Central)

Dundalk, Co Louth

Finglas, Co Dublin

Limerick city centre