STOCK IMAGE
CCTV cameras should be in place in Ōtorohanga by the end of the year, according to the council’s town concept plan.
At its meeting last week, Ōtorohanga District Council (ŌDC) discussed the plan, which ranks 49 projects by priority based on expected start dates in the next three years.
The CCTV project has been a possibility for almost two years, since Ōtorohanga police sergeant Jimmie Walker raised the idea with the council in June 2021.
It’s marked down as a high priority project to be completed in two phases – both this year.
The first action is agreeing on project scope, location, equipment, and operational, ownership funding responsibilities.
The second is to secure funding towards the system and install it.
During the council meeting, Kio Kio Korokanui councillor Rodney Dow asked if the public would have any say about whether they wanted the cameras.
“I know police want them, but a lot of the public don’t want cameras around town,” he said.
ŌDC chief executive Tanya Winter said the desire to have CCTV cameras installed in Ōtorohanga was identified through the council’s consultation and engagement process, when safety and security were identified as high priorities.
“We know that different people have different views on cameras. Would we go out and ask the wider public about them? Probably not,” she said.
“We’re going to put them in public spaces, so you either come into the public space knowing there’s cameras, or you go and find another set of shops or something that don’t have them, I suppose.”
The business community was supportive of the proposal to have cameras throughout the town, especially with an increase in crime that has been felt both at a regional and local level, Nardia Gower, group manager of strategy and community said.
In August, Nardia was involved in hosting a meeting of Ōtorohanga’s businesspeople to discuss the CCTV proposal with council staff and police present.
They heard from the sergeant about why he thought the district would benefit from having a camera network installed, which included aiding police in determining timeframes, vehicles involved and directions of travel when a crime was committed in the area.
“It’s not the be-all and end-all of security, but it is a quite important component in modern times to hold people accountable,” he said at the time.
Ōtorohanga mayor Max Baxter, who was also present at the business meeting, told councillors that police were aware of the privacy issues around having cameras in residential areas.
In his original submission to council in 2021, Jimmie recommended 18 key locations in the town centre where cameras could be installed and noted that for privacy reasons, they should only cover public roads and store frontages.
Max said because cameras couldn’t and wouldn’t be pointed at houses, the issue of a town CCTV network was mainly about the business community.
Cameras positioned at the entrances and exits of town – which the sergeant has previously recommended have automatic number plate reading technology – would also be beneficial, the mayor said.
One community where a camera system was already working well was Arohena, according to Wharepūhunga councillor Cathy Prendergast.
She said the community had benefitted from having cameras, which police used a lot.
“Arohena community has got cameras; you cannot enter or leave without being photographed.
“I don’t have any statistical evidence to back it up, but crimes have just not happened as often.
“The whole community is very pleased with the result.”
Just across Ōtorohanga’s northern border, Waipā District Council last year decided to immediately install about 25 CCTV cameras across the district at a cost of close to half a million dollars, with Kihikihi first off the block.
The decision was announced in mid-December and mayor Susan O’Regan said the council had applied for funding from the Government, but it wasn’t going to wait for confirmation.
The council was “reasonably confident” that it would receive the funding, but if it didn’t the cameras would be funded by a ratepayer serviced loan, with first year repayments budgeted in the 2023/24 annual plan.
In Ōtorohanga CCTV is one of 18 projects set to be started this year, with 31 others for the following two years.
