Over 400 arrests were made in Burnham-On-Sea and Bridgwater last year thanks to CCTV cameras in the two towns.
New figures released this week show the cameras – run by Sedgemoor District Council’s CCTV team – handled a total of 1,418 incidents in 2014, resulting in 439 arrests.
The authority monitors 147 CCTV cameras in addition to a number of dedicated Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras across the district, including 10 in Burnham-On-Sea and 45 in Bridgwater. Others are in Taunton Deane and South Somerset.
The council’s CCTV manager, Barry Donbavand, told Burnham-On-S ea.com: “We have had another busy year in the CCTV team and continue to work closely with Avon and Somerset Police and our local authority partners to get the best results and make the areas we monitor as safe as possible.”
In total the CCTV department monitored 3,659 live incidents last year that resulted in 1,213 people being arrested.
The figures do not include incidents or arrest figures for crimes where CCTV footage was used in post-incident investigations by the police, meaning the system played a part in many more actual arrests.
The CCTV control room is staffed by a team of nine who make sure the cameras are manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
