Salford City Council’s CCTV network helped police make 98 arrests in the first three months of 2016.
Arrests were made for criminal damage, assault and pretending to be a taxi driver. And an off-road bike has been seized and crushed after it was spotted on the pavement in Broughton.
The eagle eyed council staff monitor 129 state-of-the-art cameras across the city, 24 hours a day, each day of the year.
The staff has access to police radios to direct officers to incidents they spot on camera and listen to radio traffic to help search areas for wanted and missing people.
The unit captured over 700 incidents in January, February and March – almost one per hour. Over 105 pieces of high quality CCTV footage has now been handed to police to be used as evidence and to further investigate incidents.
Councillor David Lancaster, Lead Member for Environment and Community Safety at Salford City Council, said: “The cameras record in high definition quality and even have night vision lenses to capture images when it is dark.
“The cameras have proved their worth over and over again because our team can spot incidents as soon as they start and alert the police while capturing the evidence they need to prosecute.”
