Barking and Dagenham borough council is expanding its CCTV surveillance network with a further 13 rapid deployment cameras from Petards International, a subsidiary of Screen plc. Two large housing estates in the borough will be covered by the mobile CCTV network, which will be located in key surveillance areas and transmit signals to a remote receiving point.
The SWIFT camera units use radio transmission technology to send video and control data signals without the requirement for hard-wiring. This makes deployment and relocation of the cameras easier and quicker than conventional CCTV cameras. It also reduces installation and running costs.
Roger Brett, communications centre officer for the borough, told SMT the system had been chosen because crime was continually being displaced from one area to another. Following discussions with the police about local crime hot-spots, the borough embarked on a strategy to chase the criminal using mobile systems, rather than lie in wait for them.
He said: "We started using four of these cameras a year ago. We had a crime hot spot in a residential area, but now it has moved to a site near the railway line, where people come out of the station, draw money and go home. Now the cameras are starting to have an effect there. We find that the overall problem is going down, but reported crime is going up because we are seeing more." Petards says orders for the product this year have exceeded the GB pound 500,000 mark. Michael Williams, managing director, said: "Radio transmission has evolved as a highly appropriate avenue for CCTV surveillance."
