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Scarborough Borough CCTV Upgrades Won't Include Facial Recognition

More camera's and better images could be on the way but facial recognition wont be part of the upgraded system.

More CCTV camera's could be coming to the Scarborough Borough as the council plans to upgrade it's CCTV network.

£366k is to spent updating equipment which in some places is 20 years old.

The Borough Council's Customers, Communities and Partnerships Manager - Jo Ireland - says that while the new kit will offer better quality images, and potentially new locations, it wont be using facial recognition software.

As part of the upgrade work there could be new camera locations added to the borough's CCTV network but Jo Ireland says any new locations would have to carefully assessed before any camera's were installed.

The Council’s CCTV service monitors a total of 244 cameras across the Borough. These include public space cameras, primarily in the town centres of Scarborough, Whitby and key locations such as Northstead and Barrowcliff.

In addition the service monitors cameras that are primarily in place for the Council’s operational use and to protect the Council’s own assets, such as the Dean Road Depot, Scarborough indoor market, Filey Evron Centre and the Spa underground car park.

The CCTV service also provides the out of hours service for the Council, including out of hours homelessness and emergency response. The service plays a key role in monitoring large events in the town centres or on the seafront and has an important counter terrorism role in addition to the importance of CCTV in identifying and preventing crime.

Jo Ireland says the CCTV system is a key resource for the borough and operates under a strict set of rules and guidelines.

The council says that much of the control room equipment, the video management and recording system and the Scarborough Town Centre cameras are end of their life, no longer supported by the manufacturers and increasingly difficult to maintain.

The Whitby cameras were upgraded to digital in 2017/18, however the majority of the 28 Scarborough town centre cameras are still analogue and
urgently need upgrading. The majority of the current cameras are almost 20 years old and provide relatively poor quality images, compared to the digital cameras. The council says the Scarborough town centre cameras are the most critical in terms of the public space cameras given the volume of footfall, traffic and incidents.

The Borough Council's Cabinet has approved a £366k upgrade project with tender work due to take place by the end of May and installation work possible in the early part of the summer.

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