Last week the Government announced its commitment to an election promise of $5 million in grants for local governments to install CCTV cameras to help combat criminal and anti-social behaviour, and respond to emergencies.
Mayor Barry McKenna said the City was in the process of upgrading many of its older CCTV systems with some more than 10 years old, and others installed more recently.
The City has a network of cameras on and around Eighth Avenue and Guildford Road in Maylands and Progress and Bishop streets in Morley.
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READ NOWPolice Minister Liza Harvey said the Government was pioneering an integrated CCTV network allowing WA Police and emergency services to remotely access any compliant camera systems to help respond to emergency situations, including criminal and anti-social behaviour.
“The $5 million CCTV funding pool is now open for local governments to apply to either install CCTV cameras in crime hotspots, or upgrade existing infrastructure so it can feed into the network,” Mrs Harvey said.
“This works on several levels – police can assess crime jobs almost immediately, use the vision to prosecute offenders and deter criminal behaviour.”
Cr McKenna said City Security Watch officers accessed the City’s CCTV to monitor hot spots of activity live and respond to antisocial behaviour early.
“The footage is provided to local police on a regular basis to investigate incidents such as theft, assault and damage to property,” he said.
“CCTV isn’t a one size fits all proposition for crime prevention, it can be very useful for some applications while not assisting with some other situations.
“The City will consider each area of the City separately based on the number and types of crimes initially, followed by the relevance of CCTV in that area for preventing those crimes.
“City of Bayswater officers are assessing the grant and considering whether to lodge an application.”
A City spokeswoman said the City also had a mobile CCTV camera that rotated around remote car parks in summer to target specific high risk hotspots.