Calls to update town's inadequate CCTV

Baw Baw Shire's CCTV system in the Warragul central business district has been labelled antiquated, inadequate and next to useless by Cr Danny Goss, who has called for a report on the system.
Cr Goss was shocked, after visiting the local police station, to learn there wasn't live coverage for police, who, he said, were doing the best they can.
With local businesses and individuals being impacted by crime, Cr Goss wants to know how council can help with what he described as the "crime crisis."
"To say the least, I was pretty disturbed about what I saw and I've no doubt the majority of the community and you people would be as well," he said at last week's council meeting.
"Whilst there's a system of cameras in place, it's pretty inadequate for the job that's required.
"It's upsetting and frightening for people around the place."
Cr Goss requested a report be prepared and presented to council no later than October 28 regarding the status of CCTV cameras in the shire.
The report should include the number of cameras, coverage areas and limitations of the current system; costs and details associated with bringing the current system up to best practice, including capital and ongoing operational costs, access for Victoria Police and costs associated with increasing the system's coverage areas.
Benchmarking against other council CCTV systems also was requested, in particular Latrobe City Council, who, according to local detectives had an excellent system with good coverage.
"I've been told by the police detectives that work there, that they can actually get hold of something from the Latrobe council pretty much straight away. In their head, it's state of the art, and they'd like to see something like that here. Whether or not we can do it, is the question I'm probably asking," Cr Goss said.
Cr Goss also questioned why it was the responsibility of local government rather than the state government and requested information be made available for grants for a new system or part thereof.
"An upgraded and adequate system of CCTV cameras across the shire can help the police force not only solve various crimes, but hopefully deter those crimes in the first place. I know they are desperate for us to give them a hand to help them."
"Can we help them even more, to keep us safe, that's the question I'm posing here," he said.
Baw Baw CIU detective sergeant Chris Skurrie said while lighting and CCTV were matters for council, local police were supportive of any initiative that kept the community safe.
"Access to CCTV systems can be highly beneficial for police as we're able to use the vision for a number of purposes, particularly for evidentiary purposes. The release of CCTV footage to the public also greatly assists police in identifying offenders and locating witnesses to crime.
"The knowledge of cameras operating in the area can also serve as a deterrent to would-be offenders," det sgt Skurrie said.
There are seven CCTV cameras in the Warragul central business district, owned by council and monitored by police.
Earlier this month council's director of governance and information services,Martin Hopley told The Gazette council was aware of ongoing problems with several cameras in the public CCTV camera network due to "network components, including solar batteries, reaching the end of their service life."
"The CCTV network relies on solar power, and the ageing battery system can make it difficult to maintain continuous overnight recording across all cameras," Mr Hopley said.