Wigan CCTV looks ahead

From their state of the art base deep inside the town hall, Wigan Counci's risk management and CCTV section manages over 600 cameras every day of the year across one of the largest metropolitan boroughs in the country with a population of over 300,000 spread across some 77 square miles.

With many notable crime prevention successes, the national awards success brought much wider recognition to a service which is delivering results for residents, businesses and visitors to Wigan Borough every day.
    
Innovative approach
The Government Business Awards were organised by Government Business Magazine and Public Sector Information. What lifted Wigan's team above the competition was the innovative approach taken by officers.

All the recordings are stored locally and over-written after 31 days. They can be accessed remotely, allowing any incidents to be downloaded and stored onto CD or DVD. This can be achieved without the necessity to stop recordings thanks to the equipment's continuous archive facility.

The council has a policy of trialling its equipment before purchasing. Overseeing the specification of equipment for the new control centre, the council's principal officers actively sought practical staff feedback and trialled different systems under live monitoring conditions before making a decision.

And those highly trained, dedicated and fully vetted officers proactively monitor all the borough's CCTV from town hall suite. Digital rapid deployment cameras are also in use to investigate crime and civil offences as well as evidence gathering to aid prosecution.

Other examples of how technology helps identify offenders include the council's work with Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue in arson attacks and hoax calls and across all the council's own departments in anti-social behaviour, fly tipping and off-road motor cycling.

The team have published their code of practice, which states that the service is in place to uphold civil liberties, reduce the fear of crime by deterrence and provide information to maintain public order and evidence to the police and courts.

As well as surveillance duties in public areas, the control room also handles a number of commercial contracts for operations including bus and rail stations, car parks and offices.

The awards success this spring was warmly welcomed by the town hall team. The public sector prize is awarded to the local authority or central government project that considers security as a prime concern and enhances the safety of staff and residents through the installation of CCTV, monitoring, access control or other innovative security system.
    
Forward-thinking
Service manager Michell Walling says: “It was a big honour for Wigan Council just to be shortlisted for the award but to come out as the winner against some very stiff competition is fantastic. It is a testimony to the forward-thinking approach that Wigan has adopted when it comes to security. It has been a real team effort to ensure that Wigan Council is leading the field. And the service moves on.

And there's much more too. The team are responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of Wigan's own systems - and now offer that service nationally. A full project and contract management service is available from the team. They can monitor CCTV intruder alarms, manage key holding services and access control systems, for customers way beyond the council. Local, and indeed not so local, businesses are able to request advice and services from Wigan Council's team. Current clients include subsidiaries of Chubb, and long standing partners include GM Police, Fire and Rescue Service and Pub Watch.

For more information
Contact 01942 827949 or e-mail rm&cctv@wigan.gov.uk for more details. The team are keen to hear from you.