By Mikayla van Loon
When Star Mail set out on this six week campaign, the premise was to provide a solution, instead all we can offer is a proposal, one that begins with funding from the Federal Government and ends with Yarra Ranges Council managing the system.
But with no one financially committed to upgrading the CCTV network, nor a clear path forward, this vital infrastructure will essentially cease to exist, most likely sooner rather than later.
Mooroolbark Police Sergeant Cal Cunningham told Star Mail at the beginning of this campaign that come the end of this financial year, both the Yarra Ranges Safety Camera Network group and its little remaining funding would conclude.
“The way these camera systems are, they’re all owned technically, by the local groups. So when they were originally installed there were some cost savings in the installs, and for a period of time, the group that set up the cameras, the Yarra Ranges Camera Network, had some leftover funding they could put towards maintenance,” he said.
“So as of this financial year, the funds will have been used up for what maintenance money is left.”
The way Sgt Cunningham presented it, there were three possible paths forward.
“We’re reliant on either these systems being replaced with new Federal Government funding, or the council looking at investing and taking over the systems and then providing maintenance and funding for that, or relying on these groups to fundraise themselves,” he said.
“It’d be a shame to lose it. There’s already been money spent on it, so then to let it fall and go to waste would be a shame.”
As a State Government entity, Victoria Police would be unable to manage any funds or grants to operate the CCTV system despite being the primary beneficiary of the cameras.
“The community doesn’t necessarily always see the benefits of the cameras and what they’re doing, and makes it hard for the police because we probably see the most benefit,” he said.
“The difficulty for police is we can’t get involved in the money or funding side of things, we have to stay away from that.”
Sgt Cunningham did, however, point to the fact that under a council’s responsibilities, CCTV cameras was something it could provide.
“We would like the council to get more involved because it makes sense. The council covers all the areas where these cameras are, and Yarra Ranges is not the only area that has these community cameras, other council areas have similar systems and the ones that have been the most successful and work properly are the ones that are council run,” he said.
“Part of the council’s responsibility is safety and this would be a massive tool.”
Other council areas which operate and manage CCTV networks also instate their own privacy policies, which follow the Australian Privacy Act, to ensure access to footage is limited to police and the council.
Sgt Cunningham said, as it stands, police are the only ones able to access footage.
“Access to the footage, even though they’re community based cameras, it’s restricted to police who currently have access to it. If the council were to take over, then it’d be police and council.”
While “funding is a big thing” and the key driver at the moment, Sgt Cunningham said there were other options police would like to investigate to add to community safety and crime prevention in the Yarra Ranges.
“If we’re going to move forward and get new funding we’ve come with new ideas to make the cameras work better for everyone,” he said.
“So one of the concepts is a mobile trailer that has a camera setup like a portable light tower and they can be used for all types of things. There might be community events where there’s a lot of setup involved and keeping that safe and again, that could feed back to the police station as a security but also at events you’ve got kids who may go missing, to have those cameras is invaluable.
“So an example of that, there was an event in Mooroolbark a while back at Hookey Park, and a person with a disability went missing and with the working cameras we were able to track where that person went and find them and reunite them.
“Another idea of these trailer concepts, if we get new funding, would be we could target hot spots. If we’ve got an area where crimes are happening a lot but police can’t be everywhere at once we could set up the mobile cameras which will hopefully then prevent that area from being targeted by offenders.
“Even if there’s no crime going on, there’s nothing wrong in that area, we can still set up a trailer and move it around to keep criminals guessing.”
Neighbouring council area, Cardinia Shire, acts as an example of this, deploying a mobile CCTV camera to hot spots where required.
“Victoria Police and Council work together to deploy the mobile CCTV units in different locations within the Cardinia Shire to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. These units aim to reduce crime and improve public perceptions of safety,” Cardinia Shire Council’s website reads.
That aside, the ask from both township and traders groups, as well as police, is first and foremost, a funding commitment.
