DVR recording systems can be networked across multiple sites
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Mirroring the overall UK trend, the number of crimes recorded in Scotland has fallen to a 32-year low, as shown by figures from Scotland’s chief statistician. The justice secretary welcomed the figures and said they coincided with record numbers of police officers. Labour’s justice spokesman Richard Baker said there were still too many weapons offences and that mandatory minimum sentences for knife crime were still needed.
Hampshire Constabulary will introduce redundancies, as well as measures like positions left unfilled, redeployments and voluntary redundancies in order to shed 20% of its workforce. Police officers are included in that figure, which will be implemented because the force will operate with a quarter of its budget lost due to deficit-slashing plans. Unions are to discuss the plans, which will go before the police authority.
An angry relative has started a petition calling for a city council to install CCTV at a graveyard after thieves desecrated two graves in just one week. Swift justice followed one of the incidents when Kelvin McIntyre (45), of Eastfield, was jailed for 28 days at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court for stealing two treasured bronze angels from a grave in Eastfield Cemetery and selling them on for just £10.
A councillor has objected to signs warning people they are being watched by the police. Portsmouth city councillor Luke Stubbs said the signs which have appeared in his locality are straight out of George Orwell’s 1984 novel. Police have put up eight of them in the area to deter criminals after a spate of criminal damage. One of the slogans reads Beware, We Are Watching You.
A pressure group is calling for the powers, designed to tackle terrorism, to be removed from councils to make secret snooping operations. For example, Hampshire’s 137 covert surveillance actions since 2008 number once per week and were revealed by pressure group Big Brother Watch. It is the eighth highest use of the spying powers by a council.
In their bid to tackle the fear of crime, officials in Southampton are taking advantage of the fact that overall crime in the city dropped 14 per cent last year; whereas night time violent crime in the city centre also suffered a huge drop, to 31 per cent. But Southampton City Council and Hampshire Constabulary are concerned that the fear of crime remains too high. Therefore they are telling people it is safer via posters displayed in bars and pubs in the city centre.
Closed circuit television images had shown the moment a man threatened a petrol station cashier in a robbery – just a few hours after being released from prison. David Fairbairn, of no fixed abode, was sent to prison for 30 months after admitting to holding up the service station in Devon. The court was told Fairbairn had served scores of short sentences and suffered from alcohol problems.
An example of the power of CCTV is that it provided evidence that led to a man being found guilty of assaulting a drunken off-duty soldier. Members of the jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court saw CCTV footage of Peter Lightfoot pushing Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall’s head to the ground and hitting him with a police helmet.