Fine Gael call’s for more CCTV in Dublin has been described as unlikely to cut crime by a researcher at TU Dublin.
Dublin Bay South TD James Geoghegan has urged the Minister for Justice to make it easier for Gardaí to install CCTV cameras, noting a park in his constituency has been repeatedly vandalised.
He said legislation should sweep away the “unnecessary bureaucracy” Gardaí face when trying to install the cameras and free up officers for more important duties.
On Lunchtime Live, Kilmore Celts football club founder Dean Russell said he would welcome more CCTV in his local area.
“Anything that acts as a deterrent and tries to stop them from doing the stupidity that they do,” Mr Russell argued.
“We've recently had a new playground installed in Kilmore West; we campaigned for maybe 15 years longer and then within six months it was burnt.
“Now it's been fixed thanks to DCC and the local councils got it fixed.
“Then only two weeks ago, some lady caught some guy with a lighter on some dry grass trying to do it again and she stopped him, thank God.”
Security Cameras CCTV system. Picture by: Alamy.com. Mr Russell continued that their behaviour “beggar’s belief” but that CCTV would "definitely help”.
“To fight for 15 years more to get a playground in the area and then we finally get it, and then you have these individuals coming on and destroying it,” he said.
“As I said, it's heartbreaking to see when it was closed down.
“I mean, even the other day with the good weather, you're driving by and you look at 40, 50 kids in there playing, it's brilliant.”
However, Willie White of TU Dublin’s Built Environment Research & Innovation Centre said any expansion of CCTV is unlikely to cut crime.
“There is some evidence over longitudinal studies that, yes, for property crimes, certainly theft, CCTV can be used,” he said.
“But I think the call was also around public order; if you look at the UK, which has the highest, certainly in Europe, the highest rate of public CCTVs and invested lots of money in it per head of population, you don't necessarily see that reducing crime there.”
Main image: CCTV. Picture by: Alamy.com.
