Knowsley Council recognises the critical importance of CCTV to support communities and continues to invest funding into this priority area.
The latest investment of £68,000 has been made into recruiting an additional 3 specialist staff who will be responsible for the monitoring CCTV coverage of our town and village centres.
Knowsley Council has more than 950 cameras across the borough that are monitored 24/7. The new team members will provide additional monitoring of the cameras in Prescot, Huyton, Halewood and Kirkby during the evening and weekends, specifically looking out for antisocial behaviour.
Knowsley Council’s Control room has direct access to Merseyside Police’s Command and Control Room and this means that the police can be immediately notified of any incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour occurring and police patrols can be deployed accordingly.
Cllr Shelley Powell, Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods said:
“Community safety is a huge priority and it’s crucial that we continue to invest in this priority area. We want our residents to know we are taking all measures possible to tackle antisocial behaviour in our town centres so they can visit these places – day and night – and feel safe and protected.”
Superintendent Karl Baldwin, from Knowsley’s Local Policing Team said: “Our direct link with Knowsley Council’s Control Room has been a valuable resource in our continued and proactive work to address crime and antisocial behaviour in Knowsley. The continued investment from Knowsley Council demonstrates its commitment to building safer communities and gives us even further opportunity to build an intelligence picture of what is happening in our communities so we can respond accordingly.”
A further investment of £60,000 is also being made in Kirkby with the removal of more than 20 redundant CCTV columns. This comes following resident feedback that columns were unsightly. Kirkby’s CCTV network was enhanced in July last year, which saw additional investment and cameras installed in the town centre.
Cllr Powell continued: “We listened to our residents who told us that unused CCTV columns didn’t look very nice in their communities. We took the decision to invest funding into the Northwood area of Kirkby to remove them and improve the area.”
If you are experiencing anti-social behaviour or are a victim of a crime you are encouraged to report this to Merseyside Police via 101 or online here. However, if there is anything you would like to discuss in confidence with our Crime and Communities Team please email Safer.Knowsley@knowsley.gov.uk