More CCTV Would Make "Big Difference" In Fighting Island Crime Says Police Chief

More CCTV would make a “big difference” in fighting Island crime, an Isle of Wight police chief told councillors on Tuesday evening.

Superintendent Robert Mitchell responded to a question from the leader of the Isle of Wight Conservatives, Councillor Ed Blake, at a corporate scrutiny committee meeting.

Cllr Blake asked Supt Mitchell what County Hall could do better in helping Island policing.

The senior police officer said:

“We’d like more CCTV. One of my inspectors did a recent fact-finding mission to Jersey…it was an Island forum we were invited to.

“The results in driving down crime and improving community sense of safety – CCTV actually, with an operator, does make a big difference.”

He added, however, that it does “cost a lot of money” and was “challenging with challenging budgets”.

Later in the meeting, corporate scrutiny committee chair Cllr Clare Mosdell said:

“All of this (CCTV) is really good as long as it’s all being monitored. It’s not so much how many cameras you’ve got up, it’s who’s watching the cameras is the most useful.”

Cameron Baxter, community safety operational manager at the Isle of Wight Council, said:

“It’s not a case of giving police access to live footage because as we said, resources are limited. It’s more a case of police being able to access footage or knowing where cameras are when they should need it.

“So, if they’re doing an investigation in an area, they can identify that there are cameras owned there.”

The current cabinet member for community protection, Cllr Karen Lucioni, previously said she was on a “personal crusade” to ensure the Island’s CCTV cameras are fully monitored and that only one person views them at a control room in Island Road’s Newport headquarters.

Five people monitoring the cameras were made redundant in 2019 as part of £40 million cuts to the Highways PFI budget.