CCTV cameras in Athlone ‘no longer fit for purpose’
CCTV cameras are so poor in Athlone that when flower arrangements hanging on the town bridge were thrown into the Shannon in recent months the system was incapable of zooming in, or seeing the faces of those involved because the picture was blurred.
The details emerged during a discussion at last week's meeting of the Athlone/Moate Municipal District of Westmeath County Council on Cllr Aengus O'Rourke's motion calling on the Minister of Justice for an immediate upgrade of the Garda CCTV system in the town, which is now about 15 years old and “no longer fit for purpose”.
Over that time the system has seen little or no investment, maintenance or enhancement, he explained at the meeting before adding that many cameras don't work or the quality is very poor and unreliable.
“Technology moves very quickly; three years is a generation in terms of technology – the current CCTV system is therefore five generations old,” he stated. "Unless technology is updated, reinvested in and maintained on an ongoing basis, you end up with a system that doesn’t work properly and ultimately, needs to be scrapped. We are at that point with the current Garda CCTV system in Athlone.”
He spoke of the frustration of rank and file Gardai, the missed opportunities to identify people and the crimes that should have been captured but were missed.
“Modern CCTV systems today are capable of many things they couldn’t do 15 years ago. Modern policing CCTV should be able to observe, record and provide a back-up of archived data for Gardaí to refer to either in real-time or after an offence has been committed.”
In addition, the focus and the output of modern systems is sharp, it can easily zoom in to a person’s face, while number plate registration can also be installed in systems today, Cllr O'Rourke pointed out, saying that if investment is forthcoming he'd like to see the urban areas of the Greenway included in any upgrade.
The call was supported by Cllr John Dolan, who backed an extension of the areas covered by cameras.
While he supports anything that helps gardaí increase enforcement, Cllr Frankie Keena asked whether it was wise to discuss the matter in a public forum and that criminal gangs could take advantage of this discussion. However, he agreed the message is out there now and system needs to be upgraded.
Cllr Paul Hogan, who supported the extension of cameras to the greenway, said other areas of town like Northgate Street and Sean Costello Street should be covered too.
Dealing directly with his party colleague's charge that putting the issue in the public domain could be taken advantage of by criminal elements, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said it is well known in the town that the CCTV isn't working well, and that when the flower boxes were thrown into the Shannon in recent times the cameras were not capable of zooming in because the picture was blurred.
Guards have tried every way to advocate for investment in the system with no success, Cllr O'Rourke added.
He intends to bring a motion seeking Westmeath County Council to write directly to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Minister Helen McEntee on the matter.