Kingston Council applies for more CCTV funding
1 August 2013
Kingston Council will seek State Government funding for more CCTV cameras in up to five sites designated by police as potential trouble spots.
A Special Meeting was held by Councillors on July 29 to allow a decision to be made before the Government’s August 2 deadline for funding applications.
Councillors voted to seek $225,000 for up to 17 CCTVS to be placed in:
• Mordialloc
• Cheltenham
• Carrum
• Chelsea.
These were the priority sites recommended by local police as good locations for CCTVs, based on factors including need and the technical difficulty of installing the recording devices.
The decision follows Council accepting $125,000 last month for CCTVs to be installed at the foreshore car park off Gnotuck Avenue, Aspendale, the bus interchange off Station Street, Moorabbin and the exterior of an affordable housing complex on the Nepean Highway in Moorabbin.
This left $225,000 available from the total pool of $350,000 the Government had offered for CCTV installation applications from Kingston Council.
As with the Government’s previous offer, Council will be responsible for the management and maintenance of the CCTVs. If the estimated cost of $225,000 is exceeded after more detailed examination of the sites, the locations ranked as the highest priority by police will be implemented.
Kingston Mayor Cr Ron Brownlees OAM said CCTVs fitted within Council’s Community Safety Strategy.
“While CCTVs are not a guaranteed anti-crime measure, we have applied for more as our community overwhelmingly supports their installation and the cameras will act as an additional crime prevention tool for police,” Cr Brownlees said.
– See more at: http://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/Lists/News/Latest-News#sthash.cswP8rht.dpuf
Glen Eira Debates 
August 1, 2013 at 4:25 PM
Kind of funny that council is willing to spend heaps on removing good trees so that safety is improved but they won’t do a thing about the cameras. Good on Kingston for being sensible and progressive and listening to what their people want.
August 1, 2013 at 6:59 PM
Are the Police or Kingston council going to review the activities that have been recorded on CCTV and how will they go about prosecuting offenders? We read from Moorabbin/Glen Eira Leader that police have refused to get involved in CCTV at Bentleigh. Is it the council’s role to look at the footage of the entire day and employ more staff and pass all expenses to the rate payers?
August 1, 2013 at 7:21 PM
Residents should read the Kingston officer’s report (http://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/files/0d8cb4bc-05ba-4262-bd15-a2070121bab1/iPad-Agenda-Special-Council-Meeting-29-July-2013.pdf).
August 1, 2013 at 8:02 PM
Spoken like a Councillor.
There is indisputable evidence that CCTV is a crime deterrent. And while the ideal is to have CCTV manned and watched, the alternative of having CCTV footage available after the event is an equally indisputably effective apprehension/conviction tool (eg. cast you mind back to Jill Meagher).
People should be asking themselves how serious this Council is about public safety (actions vs words) and how good it is at managing ratepayers funds. When Council after Council is taking up the government funding offer you have to ask yourself why this Council is busy taking the “not our job” and “we can’t afford it” stance.
By the way, there is also another aspect to this – how long do you think it will take for criminal activity, vandalism and drunken behaviour to move to Glen Eira as surrounding Councils introduce CCTV monitoring and Glen Eira doesn’t. Not very is my guess.
August 1, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Unless there is something in the State Govt grant that demands manning of the live CCTV feed – and there is nothing in any published details that indicates it does – then I don’t understand Councils attitude. I (like pretty much every resident), have a TV, VCR, computer, iphone, high tech home alarm system – technology enables automatic feeding from one to other if desired. . So what, given the millions spent in the past few years on upgrading Councils computerized systems, is Council’s problem in being proactive on the issue of community safety. You’re kidding yourselves if you don’t think other Councils have aren’t taking advantage of the techno options and are undertaking 24/7 manual monitoring.
Public safety is an existing, growing issue – the technology exists and funding subsidies are available to address the issues on a local level so what is Councils problem. No matter what funding route is taken, the end payer is the individual (taxes or rates) so why is Council refusing to address a known growing issue and failing to provide any substantiation for doing so.
It’s valid question that deserves a valid response