TAMWORTH does not plan to get rid of its CCTV, even though a tribunal ruling has put the legality of the cameras into question.
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Nowra man Adam Bonner complained that the CCTV cameras in his town were a privacy breach and the Administrative Decisions Tribunal upheld his complaint, with Shoalhaven Council immediately turning off the cameras.
Chairman of the Tamworth Crime Prevention Committee and deputy mayor Russell Webb said the cameras were a “terrific help in Tamworth” and had been used “to apprehend a number of crooks”.
Cr Webb said, rather than turning the cameras off, the council was looking at sourcing funding to install more CCTVs in different locations as well as employing mobile CCTVs which could be moved around so people would know where they were.
He said CCTV had been very helpful in Tamworth and reduced criminal activity in areas they’re known to be placed.
“There has been a downturn in those areas,” he said.
“This case (of Shoalhaven Council) is very concerning and is just another case of the bloody do-gooders standing in the way of solving the nation’s problems.”
Cr Webb said he hoped legislation would be introduced to ensure the continued use of the CCTV cameras.
“If it isn’t, there’ll be a big fight to introduce legislation to protect our rights, as the average citizen, to help control and manage criminal activities and help in the apprehension of people involved in crime,” he said.
“If people are more aware that they could be filmed committing unlawful activities, they’re less likely to commit those activities.”
Cr Webb said a great example of how important the cameras were, was the recent apprehension of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers who were identified on CCTV footage.
“I we’d be a lot poorer if we didn’t have CCTV cameras,” he said.
“If the civil libertarians want to take them away, there’ll certainly be a backlash.”
Former chairman of the Tamworth Crime Prevention Committee and former councillor Ray Tait helped introduce the cameras to Tamworth.
“They have a two-fold effect as they are very proactive because if people know they’re there, people are less likely to commit crime and you can’t qualify that; you can’t say there were 10 people who were going to kick a window in, but didn’t, and they are reactive because there are a number of occasions where police have interviewed people, they’ve denied they did it, and they show them the footage, so they throw their hands up,” he said.
“This saves the court a lot of money and saves the taxpayer a lot of money. This bloke in Nowra needs to wake up and smell the roses. Everyone across the state is going on about level of crime, invasion and malicious damage done to property and this is one way of reducing that.”
Mr Tait, who is also a paramedic, said, when you work the streets like his staff do and he has for 40 years and police have to do, the CCTV cameras work as protectors for them.
“Especially in the CBD and around the trouble making spots which, incidentally, are now quite tame compared to prior to the cameras going in,” he said.
“I think Premier Barry O’Farrell is smart enough to know these things actually work, anyone with more than two neurons in their head knows that they work. There is a decrease in malicious damage since the cameras have gone in and to turn around and tell the antisocial types that you’re going to turn them off is like giving Ned Kelly the keys to the bank.”
Mr Tait said no one rang him and asked him if the cameras were an infringement of his privacy.
“I have as much right to voice an opinion as the bloke in Nowra,” he said.
He said if Mr Bonner would like to visit Tamworth he’d give him a tour to show the good the cameras had done in our city.