The police and Aberdeen City Council should consider sharing CCTV for the “benefit of all in the city”, a former Grampian police board convener has suggested.
Councillor Martin Grieg, who also formerly chaired Aberdeen community safety partnership, said that a joint monitoring room could save money for the hard-pressed authorities.
Currently the council operate their own cameras in the likes of tower block lifts and around schools while the police monitor theirs from Queen Street headquarters.
Mr Grieg, who represents the Hazlehead, Queens Cross and Ashley ward, said the city had been ahead of the country with the use of CCTV to fight crime.
He said: “CCTV has become a crucial weapon in the fight against crime and disorder. The city centre has benefited greatly from years of appropriate deployment of the cameras.
“We pioneered the use of CCTV in public places and the network has worked well for years.
“The whole system has to be periodically reviewed and renewed and it is time to seek reassurances that the network is effective in ensuring community safety. The long term future of the system needs to be guaranteed.
“Public safety is a responsibility that needs to be shared widely.
“It would make sense for the police and council to collaborate in running CCTV system for the benefit of all in the city.
“Sharing resources such as the camera system will be more cost effective and enable more focused joint action to protect victims of crime and antisocial behaviour.
“Misbehaviour of all kinds can be observed and actioned through working more closely on a daily basis.”
SNP finance spokesman Alex Nicoll, a former police officer, said it was “an idea worth exploring” but added that there were serious civil liberty questions to be considered.
He said: “I would have to be convinced of the idea honestly as it might go against existing RIPSA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) legislation.
“The police can request the council’s CCTV if there has been an incident captured by it anyway. I think the idea that we can just share the resource totally might be a bit simplistic.”
The police and city council declined to comment on Mr Greig’s suggestion.
