‘Multiple reasons’ CCTV cameras are keeping us safe, says senior South Holland police officer

A senior police officer has defended the area’s CCTV coverage - arguing there are ‘multiple reasons’ the cameras are keeping residents safe.

South Holland Police’s Insp Matt Dickinson spoke to LincsOnline after the district’s cameras came under scrutiny at a recent Spalding Town Forum meeting, where it was questioned how public perception towards the cameras could be improved.

During the meeting Coun Aaron Spencer also claimed he had ‘lost all confidence’ in the system after footage of his window being broken failed to lead to a prosecution.

However, Insp Dickinson said that the cameras are playing a pivotal role in protecting the community, much of which flies under the public radar.

He cited CCTV as a deterrent for anti-social behaviour, helping the search for missing people, being used as evidence in crimes, helping officers piece together movements of criminals and also as a means to check on the safety of townsfolk.

“There’s are many things we use CCTV for. Firstly, it’s a deterrent just having it as a system in place. It does deter crime and ASB (anti-social behaviour),” he explained.

“In terms of crime and ASB, we use it along with other departments in South Holland District Council. We have a sub-review room in Spalding Police Station where police officers can review crimes.

"It’s also a really useful tool to look for missing people.”

Insp Dickinson added that CCTV in the area can offer vital help to officers in solving crimes.

“It doesn’t always result in a crime being detected, but what it can do is look at the bigger picture,” he continued.

“For example, if we have a shoplift, assault or any type of crime it might not be that CCTV solves it, but it may be the missing piece of the jigsaw.

“So a shoplifter gets reported, clothing gets reported, we use the CCTV to track that person and it might be that CCTV helps us identify a vehicle the person gets into or helps identify who they are.

“It might not capture the offence, but it might be valuable as police and partners.It does help us solve crime and helps us piece things together when investigating crime.

“It may capture where a person goes and that can help open other lines of enquiry.”

In many cases, cameras are also used to ensure members of the public get home safely, something many members of the public are unaware of, even when they are being aided.

“Whilst we can’t covertly survey people there may be a couple of lone people wandering from A to B in the middle of the night, for example getting a taxi after being at the nightclub,” Insp Dickinson continued.

“What we can do, if we’ve got any concerns or think they may be a little bit drunk, is to ask CCTV operators to monitor them, to make sure they know where they’re going.

“It can help us to know they’ve made it to the taxi rank, or if they’ve fallen over whether we need to call an ambulance or get there ourselves.

“There’s the crime element but also public safety, safeguarding. There’s multiple reasons we use use our system.”

Whilst the cameras which keep an eagle eye on Spalding, Holbeach and Crowland offer extremely good quality footage, when blown up images of people of interest can pixelate when released to the public.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people watch CSI and Law and Order and see these images or registration plates being unpixelated, unfortunately with the technology we have when we blow them up they do become blurred and pixelated, that’s the nature of the technology we’ve got,” Insp Dickinson added.

To complement CCTV in their fight against crime, police are using other footage, made available from vehicle dash cams and Ring doorbells shared by the pubic in a bid to aid enquiries, which you may have seen requested in police appeals.

“One of our lines of enquiries for most crimes is Ring doorbell footage,” said Insp Dickinson.

“It activates when people move up and down driveways or in front of premises, so it does have its uses. also people approaching Ring doorbells, we’ll get a close up shot of them as well.

“I guess one of the dilemmas with dashcams is that it’s normally on a moving vehicle. and people don’t always realise they’ve captured something that’s important to our investigations.

“It’s really useful and you can’t underestimate any visual aid when it comes to investigating crime and finding suspects.”