THE fight against crime in Stratford has been stepped up with the installation of five new CCTV cameras.
They have been installed by Stratford District Council in and around the town as part of the Home Office Safer Streets Scheme. The scheme allows police forces and local authorities to invest in transformative crime prevention initiatives including additional CCTV, lighting and behaviour-based programmes.
The cameras are mobile, so they can be easily and rapidly deployed to key locations.
The locations are chosen based on reports and concerns raised by residents around crime and anti-social behaviour.
The cameras have initially been deployed in the Waterside Service Area between Bridge Street, High Street and Sheep Street, Waterside covering the busy area by the RSC, Drayton Avenue near Holly Walk, Hodgson Road and Clopton Road.
The five cameras directly feed into the CCTV service run by SDC. The CCTV monitoring service operates 24/7 and provides real-time assistance to police and officers when responding to a live incident.
CCTV operators are in constant contact with the police and local partners so that response can be quick and effective, by directing police resources to live events and providing a visual understanding of what’s happening on the ground. The CCTV service also provides high quality evidence to be used in judicial proceedings leading to convictions.
SDC’s law and governance spokesperson Coun Natalie Gist said: “Obtaining funding to purchase high quality, rapidly deployable CCTV cameras, has allowed the district council and Warwickshire Police to prevent and reduce crime through proactive monitoring and early intervention of potential incidents. The CCTV service is invaluable in protecting residents and the addition of these cameras will hopefully make residents and businesses feel safer.”
SDC has previously benefited from Safer Streets Funding, using it to install cameras by Stratford train station, the Recreation Ground and by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Since being installed in September 2023, the CCTV cameras have already assisted partners to gather evidence in a number of incidents which has resulted in the arrest of individuals and criminal charges being brought. They have been used by operators proactively over 2,495 times.
