CCTV

Hart District Council's Closed Circuit Television System (CCTV) was first introduced in 1996 and has grown rapidly to todays level of 61 cameras.

The cameras provide coverage of the following areas;

• Fleet
• Hartley Wintney
• Blackwater
• Yateley
• Hook

The CCTV Control Room is manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. CCTV tapes are kept for 28 days and are then erased, unless required by the Police for evidential purposes.

Requests to review tapes must be made to the Data Controller (see Code of Practice) or if there is an occurrence of crime and disorder incidents should be reported directly to the Police.

The CCTV System is governed by a Code of Practice and Operators Procedure Manual. The Code of Practice takes into consideration the following acts;

• Data Protection Act 1998
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
• Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
• Freedom of Information Act 2002

The systems ongoing objectives are to;

• Reduce and prevent crime and disorder incidents and to assist in the apprehension of offenders,
• To assist in the delivery of the Community Safety Strategy,
• To assist the local authority in its statutory duties and assist the community in non-criminal incidents,
• To help reduce the fear of crime,
• To ensure the security of council premises and offices at all times,
• To enhance community safety, boost the economy and encourage greater use of the town centres, shopping centres,etc,
• To assist the local authority in its enforcement and regulatory functions within town centres.

Research has shown that CCTV in Hart is effective in reducing crime levels, and improvements have been made in terms of both crime detection and crime prevention since the system was installed. Evidence from the 2004 Crime Audit shows that Harts CCTV system is effective in not only reducing actual crime levels but also the fear of crime.

CCTV Statistics

The above table shows the arrests, warnings and total number of incidents attributable to CCTV operators since our systems were upgraded in may 2003.

Top of Page