Crooks caught on Alnwick CCTV cameras

Alnwick’s town-centre CCTV cameras are already proving their worth in the fight against crime.
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Alnwick

In a report to this month’s Alnwick Town Council, Neighbourhood Sgt Sharon Wilmore-Greaves said that since the crime-busting system was installed in 2017, they had been put through their paces.

She said: “The CCTV system has been helpful providing evidence in a number of convictions, including assaults.

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“The local police worked with the town council to ensure that the cameras were placed at the most useful locations around the town.

“We have been working together to adjust the locations and angles of the cameras, since they were installed, to ensure that they give the best coverage”.

The town council, which stepped in to fund the system after Northumberland County Council withdrew its support for it in 2016, will shortly be adding two number plate recognition cameras – this will further help the police in their investigations.”

Images from cameras are beamed back to Alnwick Police Station and recorded 24/7 to maximise public safety and to provide evidence as required.

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Sgt Sharon Wilmore-Greaves also reported a drop of two per cent in overall crimes in the Alnwick area from 2017/18 to 2018/19 compared with a slight increase in the number of offences across the Northumbria Police force area.

She confirmed that the number of burglaries and drunk-and-disorderly offences in Alnwick had increased before Christmas but anti-social behaviour offences were down.

Several police operations had been put in place in the run-up to Christmas, one of which was a focus on theft from small businesses and shops.

In that period, an evening operation ran in conjunction with Trading Standards, which targeted underage drinking.

The police officer informed councillors that underage drinking had only been found in one out of the 10 locations visited.