On Friday 12th July 8 Rotarians visited the CCTV Control Room in the City of York Council West Offices. Our host was Ben Davies CCTV & Compliance Manager. Ben and his staff work for Gough & Kelly, a large Leeds based security company contracted by CYC.
We would have loved to show you a picture of the fantastic ‘Video Wall’, but this was not permitted, so to give you an idea, this is a picture from the internet of less than half of their display. The footage from all these cameras is held for 31 days, so if you have a problem, don’t leave it too long.
This is not York, as this is just 6 small screens, York has 12 large screens each covering 6 cameras
They have 72 cameras on permanent view out of a total of an amazing 800 cameras at their disposal, reaching out as far as the ring road roundabouts. On top of this there are cameras covering all the new security barriers in the city, and from here they can control access when the barriers are closed.
Each of the cameras has a 12X zoom capability, so woe betide you if you have forgotten to put your blue badge on the dashboard. To be fair, there is another control room next door that looks after traffic, so there’s another visit to be arranged hopefully!
I was on the Crime Prevention Panel, along with John Lacy, about 30 years ago when CCTV was first mooted and then served on the sub-committee that helped raise the £100,000 in 1995 so that the city could qualify for Government match-funding to set up the camera network. How things have changed since then!
Original CCTV Control Room in York police station
Dave Thompson
Further info: https://www.york.gov.uk/CCTV
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