More eyes are going to be on City of Mandurah streets after the council agreed to install number plate recognition cameras and more CCTV.
The council voted at its September 22 meeting to re-allocate about $100,000 in its budget for CCTV at the Lakelands Park community sports facility and for automatic number plate recognition CCTV.
Each project is expected to cost about $72,000.
The Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety gave the city a $40,686 grant for the plate recognition cameras, with the rest coming from a reserve set aside by the city for community safety projects.
The cameras will be installed on Mandurah Bridge covering east and westbound traffic, and Mandurah Terrace near Little Stiller, Brighton Hotel and Tuckey Lane.
The money for the Lakelands CCTV will come from a reserve with funds for sport and recreation infrastructure upgrades, which the council was told had been “on pause” for 18 months.
The funding re-allocation for the Lakelands CCTV was passed unanimously, but the vote for the plate recognition cameras was 8-3.
Objections centred around the belief that it was a State Government responsibility and not the city’s.
Cr Ryan Burns said while he accepted conventional CCTV had a legitimate role, he had not seen any clear justification for automatic number plate recognition.
“We know that ANPR component is operated by WA police. The data goes to WA police and city officers do not have access to it,” he said.
“That makes this in substance a policing and an intelligence gathering capability.
“If the State Government believes ANPR is necessary for policing, then the State should justify it to the community and fund it.
“I do not support Mandurah ratepayers contributing to a surveillance capability that the city neither operates nor uses.”
Cr Dave Schumacher had a similar sentiment, saying it was “100 per cent a State Government job”.
“I don’t have a problem with CCTV cameras, nor do I have a problem with ordinary number plate recognitions,” he said.
“I’ve seen how good they work in the UK on Motorway Cops, one of my favorite programs.
“But the bottom line here is that is not our role. I can’t support crossing over the line between State and local governments.”
City place and community director Jude Thomas told the meeting city officers “got the sense” from the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety that APNR cameras were preferred.
She said three of the four cameras the grant could be used for were APNR.
“The grant was looking to deploy cameras in high traffic and high density areas with known hotspots of antisocial behavior and use the technology to help prevent more crime,” Ms Thomas said.
Cr Owen Mulder said it was a “concerning direction” if the city had been told it would receive the grant only if it installed ANPR.
Cr Caroline Knight said security had always been a top item in community surveys and rejecting the grant would not be met well.
She said similar cameras had helped catch two people who stole her car while she was at a council meeting.
“It’s really unfortunate that we require that kind of technology, but the reality is there are people that engage in antisocial behavior that impacts on people physically and also on our infrastructure,” Cr Knight said.
“I think our community would be incredibly surprised if we were to knock back a grant of this level that would help security.
“I hear Cr Burns say that it’s a police matter but I think we work hand in hand in Mandurah and we’ve always asked to work hand in hand with our police.”
Cr Jenny Green said there had been a lot of social commentary about safety in Mandurah and the money for ANPR would be “well used”.
“Number plate recognition is something that is quite separate to the CCTV. In other words, it goes straight to the police department and if there is any question of a crime, you have to go through various oversight processes in order to get that,” she said.
“It is a valuable tool to have if a car goes missing, a child is in that car ... whether somebody has vandalised a particular asset in Mandurah, anything like that that’s created havoc and you want to know where that vehicle has gone, then this is the only way it can be done.”
Police have access to the city’s CCTV network, which Cr Green said they needed a warrant for.
“It’s not just random ... that they can go and just look at it for whatever they want,” she said.
Ms Thomas said the CCTV at Lakelands would not include ANPR, facial recognition or other similar technology.
A council report said there had been a recent increase in anti-social behaviour and break-ins at Lakelands Park. Ms Thomas said the city had spent about $23,000 on repairs there.
“Additional to the direct financial impacts of the repairs, the user groups are affected by feeling unsafe,” she said.
“The CCTV system is proposed to improve deterrence, support incident investigations, enhance community safety, and reduce future maintenance and repair costs.”