Gosnells residents have a new weapon in the fight against crime, with the City of Gosnells introducing a CCTV rebate scheme in a move that has been praised by Gosnells Police.
The Safe City Community CCTV program is a joint approach by the City of Gosnells, WA Police Force, and local community members and property owners to prevent crime and reduce the real and perceived impact of crime and disruptive behaviour.
Under the program, residents can apply for up to $500 rebate towards the purchase of a hard-wired CCTV system with a minimum of two cameras.
Under the terms and conditions of the program, at least one camera must be be facing the street, and the CCTV system must be registered with WA Police, allowing police to access.
One other requirement is that the CCTV system must be registered with WA Police as part of their CanMap system, and resident must agree to provide footage to WA Police when requested.
Police have no power to access the CCTV without a specific request.
Mayor Terresa Lynes said the $125,000 program, which is limited to 250 properties, was a response to community concern over crime in the area.
“The feedback is people are concerned about the level of crime and we think this will help,” she said.
“CCTV was identified by WA Police as one of the most outstanding options we, as a city, could take in an effort to reduce crime.
“This has been used in Karratha and Victoria Park, and they’ve had a lot of success with similar programs.”
Gosnells Police acting Officer in Charge Glen Dinsdale said CCTV was an effective deterrent against criminals.
“CCTV is definitely a deterrent, we see offenders actively avoid areas with a more concentrated area of CCTV, as they obviously want to avoid detection,” he said.
“We solve a significant number of crimes from community CCTV footage and that’s only increasing in time.
“It’s very handy to register for the CanMap program, we have mapping software with several overlays so we can overlay where the crime has occurred and reference that to the CanMap system, so it saves time where we can contact people from the desktop and keep officers responding to incidents.
“The officers doing investigations can do a lot more at the desktop while leaving the response guys to do what they do.”
The program was launched on Wednesday, and applications through the City’s website close on May 1, 2023.
