CCTV

Stuff reports:

Every town in the country should have CCTV cameras to installed to help in the fight against crime.

That’s the opinion of one top officer, retiring after 30 years in the force, and who in the course of his career worked some of the country’s most notorious crimes

Retiring Detective Sergeant Glenn Tinsley, formerly of the Waihi Crime Investigation Bureau, was heavily involved in both Operation Sara – the murder of Sara Niethe in 2003 – and Operation Olive – the murder of Paeroa Pizza man Jordan Voudouris in June 2012, two investigations he says would have been a lot easier with the help of technology.

He says if the government and public want to “get serious” about crime prevention, the first step should be a rollout of CCTV cameras coupled with plate recognition technology.

He reckons cameras – paid for by local councils, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and ACC levies – should be installed at the entry and exit points of every town.

“If you had a camera set up in all towns either side of Whangamata, Whitianga, Tairua, Coromandel the same, even the [Kopu] bridge at Thames; everything that moves – you are going to catch it,” he said.

Why stop there?

Why not microchip every person born in NZ, with a chip that tells the Police where you are. So if a crime happens in a specific area, the Police can work out who was within 100 metres of the crime and haul them in for questioning.

Then after that, we can start work on pre-crimes. Of course that would mean arresting the entire population of Huntly.