Safer Streets cameras installed

More cameras have been added to Swale Borough Council’s CCTV network to help tackle crime and keep people safe.

Six cameras have been installed in Sittingbourne and Sheerness town centres, bolstering the existing network of more than 300 cameras across the borough already being monitored 24/7 by the council’s CCTV control room.

An additional three rapid deployment cameras, which are mobile and can be installed in the event of an emergency or in locations that see a spike in crime, have also been purchased.  

This is the second set of cameras brought in as part of the council’s Safer Street project, which aims to tackle antisocial behaviour and violence against women and girls bringing the total up to 18.

These cameras act as a visual deterrent against anti-social behaviour, gathers evidence which helps the council and police catch and prosecute offenders, and allows the control room to radio in any incidents caught on camera to first responders through Swale Link.

The council’s Safer Streets project is coming to an end in March, but over the past two years the initiative has implemented many measures to help people feel safer in the town centres, such as:

• offering free active bystander training and “train the trainer” events
• funding youth programmes such as Vibe's Sheerness Youth Club
• educational workshops at a local secondary school focusing on subjects such as anti-social behaviour, drugs, alcohol, knife crime and vaping
• working in partnership with Sheppey Matters to help fund community engagement events, such as the community gardening
• improving the lighting of public spaces and target hardening
• street marshals to patrol the high streets
• teaming up with domestic abuse charities to give out a personal safety app to vulnerable women
• providing crime prevention merchandise such as personal alarms and cup and bottle covers

Cllr Richard Palmer, chair of the Community and Leisure Committee, said:  

“Our CCTV control room works incredibly hard to monitor the borough’s cameras day and night and have had success helping the police stop, catch and prosecute people committing crimes or nuisance in towns across the borough.

“It is the communication between our officers and Kent Police that makes this network of cameras so effective, and is why adding these additional resources, paid for by our Safer Streets campaign, will help keep people safe.  

“One of the reasons it has so helpful in stopping crime and making sure people get the help they need is because the control room show first responders live footage from the cameras allowing them to respond immediately, once they arrive to the scene.”

Cllr Elliott Jayes, vice chair of the Community and Leisure Committee, said:

“Our Safer Streets project may be coming to an end soon, but I know it has had a real, impactful and positive affect on the safety of these two Town Centres.

“It wasn’t only interventions like these cameras and the street marshals that helped keep people safe, it is the educational programmes - working with schools and teaching people to be active bystanders - that will keep having a positive affect long after this project ends.

“Of course, we would have loved to implement these measures across the borough but the funding guidelines from central government were very restrictive.  

“We are always looking for other funding opportunities that will allow us to continue our work to keep our residents safe.”

The council - through the Community Safety Partnership - worked with the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner to secure the funding needed for the campaign from the Government’s Safer Streets Fund.

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