Bedford Borough 'Must Not Become a Honey Pot for Criminals' says Mayor Dave Hodgson in CCTV debate

Mayor Dave Hodgson declared that Bedford Borough 'must not be allowed to become a honey pot for criminals' after the Conservatives questioned the use of CCTV in the Borough. Mayor Dave was speaking to the Council's Scrutiny Committee, after the Tories called for a review into two recent Council decisions to extend the use of targeted, effective CCTV in Bedford Borough.

One of the decisions was the acceptance of £25,000 of Home Office Funding on behalf of the Community Safety Partnership, which includes the Police and Fire Services among others, as a contribution to a project to install around six Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in the Borough. This system reads the registration number on vehicles, and checks them against lists of vehicles linked to crimes or individuals wanted by the police for criminal activities.

Commenting after the meeting, Mayor Dave Hodgson said: "The results from the use of ANPR in tackling crime are exceptional. For example, in the short period between April and July this year, Beds Police ANPR Team report 46 drug-related arrests, 40 for theft and 22 for burglary. And this is before we have any cameras in Bedford Borough. Every police force in the country now uses ANPR. The Conservatives said that this decision should be reviewed, but I am adamant that with neighbouring areas increasingly using this crime-fighting tool, Bedford Borough must not get a reputation as somewhere criminals can operate without fear of detection through ANPR. We must not become a honey pot for criminals."

On the issue of Civil Liberties, Mayor Hodgson added: "As someone who has campaigned for years on civil liberties issues, I am the first to acknowledge legitimate concerns around ANPR and how it could in theory be used. However, I can confirm that the Council itself will store no data whatsoever from the cameras, while the new Government has announced that the police will for the first time be bound by statutory rules on how it handles ANPR data to ensure the protection of innocent people.'

"I have always argued that we should not be aiming for blanket CCTV coverage, but intelligent CCTV coverage which actually works. That is why along with my Liberal Democrat colleagues on the Council I campaigned successfully for the introduction of wireless mobile CCTV units that can be moved in response to changing hotspots. I am also very pleased that we have now acquired a camera vehicle which will be used to log the details of unlawfully parked cars in dangerous locations, especially outside schools. The vehicle is clearly marked and is not about surveillance, but rather a snapshot only of those cars parked illegally, whose owners will be fined. Despite the Conservatives also seeking to challenge this move, with children having been injured in accidents near schools in the Borough this year I have no doubts that the sooner we are using this camera to remove the scourge of dangerous parking the better."