Police support for CCTV calls in Caistor

Support for the installation of CCTV in Caistor market place is growing, with local police ‘fully supportive’ of the initiative.
Caistor market placeCaistor market place
Caistor market place

Calls for the installation of cameras has been stepped up following recent incidents in the town.

Speaking at this month’s town council meeting, community beat manager PC Emma Devlin said: “The community beat team are fully supportive of this. It will assist us with any investigation that we take on in the local area and, of course, will help us bring criminals to justice.

“It (CCTV) gives us really credible evidence when we are investigating crime.”

Community policing inspector for West Lindsey, Inspector Simon Outen has also shown his support for the CCTV scheme.

In a letter to West Lindsey, Inspector Outen said the police would ‘always be supportive of any extension of council-run CCTV to additional locations’.

He continued: “There are a number of benefits for the police in that council CCTV is routinely monitored, enabling escalating incidents to be identified, suspects visually captured and evidence of offences to be obtained.

“You are already aware that CCTV work closely with us in assisting in gaining a real time assessment of reported incidents as we respond.

“In a location such as Caistor this is even more beneficial, given the limited police resources in the area.

“Whilst CCTV does not always prevent crime, it does enable the response to calls for service to be assessed more accurately, provides evidence of capture and I am of no doubt that it provides public reassurance to those going about their lawful day to day lives.”

Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones said he was ‘pleased to hear’ CCTV was a key priority for Caistor Town Council and has asked to be informed of progress on the CCTV initiative .

Working with West Lindsey District Council, cameras were installed at the town’s sportsground more than 12 months go, however, plans for cameras in the market place met with some opposition.