THE Tamworth crime prevention working group won’t be looking to install CCTV cameras near the city’s war memorials following a “malicious” attack at Anzac Park.
The memorial gates on Brisbane Street were vandalised days before April 25 which prompted a slew of community outrage and calls for surveillance at the city’s public war monuments to deter future incidents.
Chair of the Tamworth crime prevention working group, Russell Webb, said the committee deemed the cost would be too high to install cameras at each site in town.
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“The cost of that is fairly high,” Cr Webb said.
“Being a one-off since the gates were installed, we’ll place our mobile CCTV units at memorials at various times and nobody will know when the cameras are there.
“The cost to put cameras at the sites permanently is extremely high for a one-off event and we’ve decided use the mobile cameras to act as a deterrent.”
Mark Rodda asked council to investigate the cost of installing CCTV cameras at each of the city’s memorials following the April incident.
He said it might have been a good deterrent to have at least one permanent camera installed.
“It would have been nice to have at least a camera there to put some doubt in the mind of someone who’s potentially going to carry-out some vandalism,” he said.
Cr Rodda said the Anzac Park monument would be “one of the most expensive” to repair; a cost which could be borne by council.
He said CCTV had become a key part of the suite of local prevention measures.
“I don’t want to harm people’s right to privacy, but it’s a sad reality of our current crime and law and order situation that we need rely on CCTV to try and keep crime and antisocial behaviour down,” he said.
Jacob McArthur
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
