CCTV upgrade to cost tax and ratepayers hundreds of thousands

In a report obtained by the Sentinel the firm recommends setting aside £43k for remote network recorders, workstations and transmission works to allow PSNI officers anxious about dissident attacks to download CCTV footage from the City Centre Initiative (CCI) control room remotely.

The current control room, which has been monitoring the CCI cameras for over a decade, is located in the Waterside approximately ten minutes walking distance from the Crescent Link police station. Most of the CCI cameras in the city are monitored there.

But the cameras at the Peace Bridge and Ebrington are monitored at a different control room in the cityside.

Other significant investments outlined by the firm are seven proposed new cameras along the River Foyle near the Derry City Council (DCC) offices. That’ll cost around £60k, according to the report.

Another big investment recommended is capital funding of £30k for the ‘selective replacement of older cameras and procurement of a five-year preventative maintenance contract.’ Ten thousand pounds per year should be set aside in revenue to run this on top of the £30k capital investment.

“We recommend that immediate issues around control room maintenance and short-term problems with specific cameras and control systems are resolved. Once these have been addressed, DCC and its partners need to work with the contractors to initiate a strategy for renewal of the camera equipment and to put in place robust maintenance contract for the cameras,” the firm states. “In parallel with this, it needs to develop a strategy for additional camera installations to support special events, and allow the Special Events Team to access relevant camera views,” it adds.

Temporary cameras and a separate control room are set up for events like Hallowe’en and New Year’s Eve. DCC reckons this costs £50k a year alone. The seven new riverside cameras will be a one off investment and will render the special events cameras obsolete.

“We also recommend that DCC and its partners evaluate whether achieving BS5979 compliance for the control room would be worth the cost [estimated at £100k] and that they consider a new contract that moves all control monitoring activities into a single facility (i.e. including Peace Bridge camera monitoring).”

BS5979 is a British standard for remote fire and intruder alarm centres that goes back to 1987. For 13 years of its existence BS5979 didn’t even apply to public CCTV control centres. Neither is it a statutory requirement. DCC recently closed an invitation for a select list to replace CCTV cameras, install new ones, integrate existing systems and provide maintenance and monitoring for public CCTV.