Release date: 11/01/2010

By: Charlie Masson Smith
Telephone 020 8871 6173 or email cmassons@wandsworth.gov.uk

Cameras helped police and paramedics

 Wandsworth's network of CCTV cameras played a big role over the festive season in helping the police catch criminals and paramedics rescue people in dangerous situations.

On Monday of this week, alert CCTV operators in the council's emergency control room spotted a man who had fallen into the Thames near Battersea Bridge just before midnight. They were able to call in rescue teams who pulled the man out of the freezing water and then took him to hospital.

Just before 1am on December 18, a woman was spotted threatening to jump into the river from Putney Bridge. The camera operator was able to summon help from the emergency services and the woman was eventually persuaded to come down from the parapet before being taken to hospital.

Around 20 minutes earlier that same night the same camera operator saw a badly hurt woman lying in the middle of the road in Balham High Road and immediately called for help. The woman was taken to hospital before she suffered any further injuries.

On New Year's Eve at 11.40pm the camera operator was able to send police to break up a street brawl involving three men and three women in Clapham Junction. The officers arrived in time to stop the protagonists getting seriously hurt.

Just before 3am on New Year's Day, the camera operators were able to guide police to a man in Wandsworth High Street who was reported to have threatened three people with a knife. He was subsequently arrested.

On December 4, the cameras captured a road rage incident in the Upper Tooting Road and police were dispatched to the scene before events turned nasty.

And the previous week two men were allegedly caught red-handed stealing the lead off a church roof in Tooting.

The council's community safety spokesman Cllr James Cousins said: "These incidents show just what a useful role our cameras play in helping to keep local people safe.

"They are of course there primarily to detect and combat crime and disorder, but they can also be used to monitor all sorts of situations from road accidents and traffic hold-ups to the kind of River Thames emergencies we saw recently.

"Not only have they been used to help solve crimes that have already been committed, they often help the police nip problems in the bud - before they develop into something more serious."

The council's CCTV operators work closely with the police in their efforts to combat crime and disorder.

The cameras are regularly used by the Met to gather evidence in a range of cases. They have also been proactively deployed to assist in investigations ranging from rape and murder to drugs offences, fraud, stolen vehicles and firearms incidents.

Senior police officers in the borough have said that the council’s CCTV network provides evidence in around half of the cases that they bring to court.

The town hall operates more than 1,000 cameras across the borough, including around 700 on local housing estates.

They are constantly monitored in the council's CCTV emergency control room, which is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Local police have an over-ride facility which means they can instantly take control of any of these cameras any time they wish.


ENDS

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The most recent comments made about this article.

Good to read a positive take on surveillance and the role it is playing in safeguarding the public in our Borough.
Steffi - Putney