By Mikayla van Loon
CCTV can be a critical tool for police whether investigating a criminal incident, locating a missing person or piecing together a timeline.
That’s why the Yarra Ranges Safety Camera Network was initiated.
Last week, Star Mail presented the background on the who, what, when, where and why when it came to funding, the purpose of the cameras and which towns had them installed.
This week, the editorial team compiled the many incidents that have been reported on in the last few years where the CCTV networks were funded.
Star Mail journalist Mikayla van Loon also sat down with Mooroolbark Police Sergeant Cal Cunningham to better understand the use, benefit and need of CCTV in the Yarra Ranges.
To begin, Sgt Cunningham explained that cameras are hosted by businesses across the townships with signal boxes also installed to carry the footage back to the police station.
These can be spread not just along main streets but throughout the town centres and typically capture large sections of the immediate vicinity.
“The way the system works, it’s like Wi-Fi signals or almost like any phone tower. It then relays back to the police station,” he said.
Unfortunately, things like tree branches, signage and anything else that may block or obstruct the signal box has an impact on how well the signal carries.
“We’ve got some systems that seem to be working quite well. There’s others that are needing maintenance. One of the big issue ones is Lilydale because, one, it’s dated but also when they redid the train station it interrupted the signal.
“Because of the rail line and when it was getting built, it’s taken out a lot of the senses, causing a lot of problems.”
When maintained and fully operational Sgt Cunningham said the camera network is invaluable to both live police investigations and accessing footage after the fact.
“It’s done a lot of good work, especially for the detectives at Yarra Ranges CIU and a lot of their investigations have had good results because there’s a camera,” he said.
“So if an incident occurred overnight, the detectives could access the system and actually review it without having to go up and do a canvas.
“One thing we do is look at local businesses and homeowners that might have cameras but if we’ve got the community cameras up and running properly, it saves detectives time and travel to those remote areas if we’ve got footage we can directly access back at the station.”
Sgt Cunningham said it has also been especially useful in live tracking incidents, sometimes overnight when a unit is stationed elsewhere, to view an incident playing out in real time.
“It’s a rarity to have a police unit based in say Healesville overnight. The closest police station is Lilydale,” he said.
“So again, that’s another reason having these cameras available, when they’re working properly, if there’s an incident in Healesville, we can hook in at a police station and see what’s going on because of the time it takes for a police unit to get up there.”
This may mean the officer in the watch house can give updates on a situation as a unit attends or track the direction an offender may flee in.
Even post investigation, CCTV footage can be vital for evidence in court and limiting the trauma victims may face.
“CCTV can also save victims additional trauma of having to go to court because that can be scary and traumatic, for witnesses too, even though they’re not directly involved, but they’ve seen it happening,” Sgt Cunningham said.
“If there’s footage and it’s clear what’s happened, that can lead to early pleas of the court, so it doesn’t tie up the court system. It’s a good result for victims because the offender understands the camera shows the incident and will plead guilty rather than putting people through the pain.”
Given the age of some of the cameras, Sgt Cunningham said while some systems like the one in Monbulk, which has been well maintained by the township group, are probably not in need of replacing, others have reached the end of life.
“Upgrading the newer systems is probably not necessary but if we think of it as a bit of a rolling project, starting with the older areas, start where we need the cameras the most so that would be Lilydale, Healesville and Mooroolbark, which are some of the older systems as well as the larger ones.
“Obviously, where we have more issues is where we want to target.”
The advancement in technology since the installation of the initial cameras, Sgt Cunningham said, would most likely have improved exponentially, providing higher quality images with better clarity, which is also a foundational reason for wanting to see upgrades to the systems.
