Fountain residents call for direct action from police

Operation Exposure, hailed at its launch last year as an innovation in crime detection, utilises CCTV images from cameras across the city in an attempt to identify, arrest and prosecute perpetrators.

Images have appeared in the local press in recent months asking the public to contact police in the hope of bringing to book alleged shoplifters, those guilty of serious assault and a raft of other offences.

But, the reasoning for and the actual dates of the latest batch of pictures, involving young people police wish to speak to about incidents at the Fountain/Bishop Street interface, have been queried and criticised by Fountain residents. However police said they have already led to arrests and charges for dozens of offences.

In the latest raft of published pictures, the PSNI press material that accompanies them stated: “Following recent disorder in the city over the Twelfth I am asking parents and guardians to make sure their children are not the ones throwing stones, bricks and petrol bombs...We need to work together as a community to ensure we are providing a safe environment, not only for our children, but for everyone who lives in this city.”

However, one Fountain man, whose home has been plagued by attacks over the years maintained that the most recent images were not from the Twelfth period but related to a protracted period of violence in May.

Alex McClements said: “There was one sectarian incident at the interface during the Twelfth and that was at around 3am on the morning of the Twelfth. There have been no major incidents since. I think that none of those pictures are from the 12th of July. I believe all those pictures relate to the violence around May time.

“I am directly challenging the police as to why these pictures are appearing now. Why say these pictures are from the 12th when there was only one incident in the early hours of the morning of the Twelfth?

“If the police are doing this to try and gain confidence from people in the area they are barking up the wrong tree.”

Mr McClements also queried the effectiveness of Operation Exposure with relation to arrests and prosecutions made in the area.

Another resident of the area, William Jackson, also dismissed the use of the CCTV images in local papers as a ‘paper exercise’.

ARRESTS

“Police need to be on the ground at the time making arrests not printing pictures weeks later.

“There is no point in sitting in a Land Rover chasing these guys up and down Nailor’s Row, they need to get out there on their feet and apprehend people at the scene. That would save any confusion over CCTV images. We wouldn’t need CCTV if they’d do their job properly.

“I think they (the police) are simply trying to deter people from attacking on 12 August by running this public relations exercise. Nobody in the Fountain has any faith in the CCTV cameras.

“Personally, I am considering legal action because I feel my human rights are being abused with the CCTV cameras constantly pointing into my yard.”

In response to the criticism levelled at Operation Exposure, the police officer spearheading the campaign, Inspector Jon Burrows said that a dedicated investigation team was handling Operation Exposure and this included interface violence over a period of time reaching back to incidents before July 12.

He said: “Photographs relate to interface violence through May and June. The overall enquiry is into interface violence in May and June and violence over July 12.”

Inspector Burrows also revealed that images dealing solely with July 12, when violence was confined to the Bogside will be released within the next ten days.

“There were no incidents at the Fountain on July 12 that were reported to the police,” he said.

The senior policeman said the latest pictures had produced results: “There have been a total of 15 arrests, 12 of those have been charged with around 50 offences - currently three persons have been reported to the Public Prosecution Service.”

The police officer also told the Sentinel that all avenues of internal police investigation into alleged offenders were “exhausted” before any CCTV images were published.

“Operation Exposure is compliant with human rights, a procedure must be followed and juveniles are only included as a last resort.”