Somerset Council’s CCTV team have reported nearly 700 incidents across the county to police in the last 3 months.
In the latest of these, on Wednesday 12 November, the team helped to prevent a serious incident, alerting police after a fire was spotted on camera under a climbing frame in a children’s play area in Bridgwater.
The team’s swift action – one of hundreds of interventions in the last few months, ensured firefighters could attend and prevent the deliberately started fire in Northgate from escalating.
In the last 3 months, Somerset Council’s CCTV team has reported 690 incidents across the county to police, and there have been nearly 400 footage requests from police to assist investigations.
In one case, one of the operators successfully guided police to an offender who had stolen a woman’s handbag.
The service is funded by city, town and parish councils across Somerset.
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Communities, Housing and Culture said:
These figures underline how vital our CCTV operators are to community safety. Thanks to their hard work and dedication criminals are being apprehended, serious incidents are being prevented and vulnerable people supported.
We are grateful for the continued support and funding we receive from our town, city and parishes councils, alongside this we recognise the importance of having state-of-the-art technology and are rolling out upgrades across the service.
After the latest incident in Bridgwater, Councillor Tim Mander, Chair of Bridgwater Town Council’s Amenities Committee said:
We are appalled by these senseless acts of vandalism, but we are immensely proud of the vigilance shown by the CCTV team and the swift response from the fire service. Their quick actions prevented what could have been a far more serious incident. Our parks should be safe havens for children and families, and we will continue to do everything possible to protect and maintain them.
The figures in full over September-November:
- 690 incidents reported to police and emergency services
- 391 Police footage requests actioned by the CCTV team
- 408 incidents proactively detected by CCTV operators
The CCTV systems in Burnham-on-Sea and Street have recently been upgraded to high-definition cameras, and upgrades in Taunton, Wellington and Shepton Mallet are in progress.
