Security camera upgrade to monitor Wee Waa’s main street

Narrabri Shire Council will look at boosting security in Wee Waa by reporting on the possibility of purchasing a mobile camera system for the town, which would allow police to monitor “trouble spots”.

At the most recent ordinary council meeting, councillors voted in favour of NSC reporting on the possibility of installing back to base monitoring of council cameras in Wee Waa to allow 24/7 access for NSW Police.

Council will also seek grant funding for the potential purchase of the mobile camera system.

Cr Brett Dickinson moved the motion, it was seconded by Cr John Clements and supported by Cr Darrell Tiemens, Cr Cathy Redding, Cr Lisa Richardson, Cr Greg Lamont, and Cr Robert Browning.

Cr Rohan Boehm voted against the motion, he said he was supportive of point ‘a’ – ‘council reports on the possibility of installing back to base monitoring of council cameras in Wee Waa to allow 24/7 access for NSW Police’.

However, he was not in favour of the other points and could not support the motion because he didn’t believe it was ‘the role of local government to invest in the cameras and invest in the technology’.

“I don’t actually believe we should take on state government cost-shifting in crime prevention or detection,” said Cr Boehm.

“We don’t get involved in monitoring our community, that’s the state government.”

Cr Boehm also raised concerns about the financial burden to the community going beyond initial capital costs for equipment and installation and technology upgrades.

He said he believed the role of council on this issue was ‘to facilitate, not to own it’.

Cr Dickinson said there was an incident on the main street, at the Wee Waa town clock, just before Christmas and he understood the police investigation was hampered by the time it took to access the footage.

“The cameras have been there for many years, and we want to be able to help police get access to viewing the crimes quicker than what they can at the moment,” said Cr Dickinson.

NSC director of corporate and commercial services Andrew Brown contributed to the discussion and while he expressed his view about the motion being a positive step, he explained he was a university lecturer on crime prevention in rural settings and urged council to make ‘evidence-based decisions’.

“We need to be mindful where we increase CCTV that we’re not displacing crime to another location.

“We need to be making evidence-based decisions.

“I like the idea of grant funding and a report coming back.”

Cr Redding and Cr Richardson both contributed perspectives from their experience as council representatives on the crime prevention advisory committee.

“At the moment, Wee Waa is the hot spot for crime,” said Cr Richardson.

Cr Richardson acknowledged councillors needed to consider whether cameras in one location would just move crime to another location but said she supported the motion and wanted to support Oxley police ‘wherever we can with crime’.

Cr Redding said, “It’s something the police definitely want, and I think they definitely need.

“It’s probably not our job to control crime but it’s our job to assist.

“There is grant funding out there for crime prevention.”