Fighting Crime From Above?

Back in April, the West Australia police launched a voluntary CCTV camera registration program called Blue Iris. I thought this was a good idea, so I wrote an entry about it. It turns out the program was either not well received, or lacking communication with local businesses. According to Australian news WA Today:

WA Police have defended a CCTV project aimed at cracking down on anti-social behaviour in licensed venues despite hardly any interest in the program from clubs or pubs throughout Perth and Fremantle.

The Blue Iris CCTV Register was launched in April by Police Minister Rob Johnson, who said the program would give police access to live vision from CCTV cameras which could allow them to act faster when an incident arose and speed up the investigation process.

However, out of the dozen nightclubs and bars around Perth and Fremantle that WAtoday contacted, only one could confirm they were aware of the system after police had approached them about registering.

The Australian Hotels Association WA branch also revealed it had not been advised of the joint police and Government program.

Mr Johnson forecast in a statement on April 3 that Blue Iris – which was a voluntary register for businesses – would provide WA Police with access to "4000-6000 cameras this year alone, significantly boosting their ability to fight crime on our streets".

But with violence and other forms of anti-social behaviour escalating in entertainment hotspots around Perth – especially in Northbridge and Fremantle – the message about Blue Iris seems to have not filtered through to club and pub operators.

Patrick Murphy, of the Mustang Bar, said his business had not been approached to be on the registry.

"Under requirements of liquor licensing legislation, we are required to have a CCTV system in place, the footage of which we make available to Police and Racing, Gaming and Liquor inspectors on request," he said.

A spokesman for the Geisha Bar said "this is the first (time) Geisha Bar has ever heard of this system".

Managers and spokespeople from The Red Sea, The Deen, The Shed, The Rivervale Hotel, The Botanica, Metropolis Fremantle, The Newport and Benny's Bar said they had not heard of the Blue Iris Register, but needed to speak to colleagues to try and glean further information about it.

AHA WA spokesman Doug White said the Association has not been contacted by police about the program, and was not aware of any of its members signing up to the registry.

Mr White said he was "unsure" as to whether the Association felt this program could have an impact on clamping down on anti-social behaviour in and around clubs.

"We haven't been fully briefed on the initiative, which is kind of interesting," he said.

However, a manager from the Sapphire Bar in Subiaco acknowledged police had discussed the Blue Iris registry with him, but he confirmed his bar was not on the registry.

Since its launch in April, Michael Coe of the Office of Crime Prevention said about 100 businesses have registered with the system but he was not able to give an exact figure.

He added many local and state government agencies have yet to register, but he expected most to get on to the system in the near future.

Mr Coe said he could not say was or was not on the registry, citing confidentiality issues, but he did say registration numbers had failed to meet the expectations of police.

"We would always like more and we are working on a marketing strategy to increase the numbers," he said.

"However we are encouraged with those who are large companies and corporations who have registered as some are significant sites."

Mr Coe could not say how many crimes Blue Iris had helped solve since its inception, claiming the technology "is still relatively new and in its infancy as an operation tool for police".

"Blue Iris is an open invitation to all CCTV assets owners to register their system with police so we can map out where these systems are should police ever need to know or use," he said.

A spokesman for the Police Minister said Mr Johnson was satisfied with the overall response from local businesses to Blue Iris and he maintained pubs and clubs were not the main priority for the Register.

"While 'hot-spots' were never targeted as the prime focus for Blue Iris, there is a growing representation of all aspects of the community registered with Blue Iris," the spokesman said.

"The Office of Crime Prevention is continuously marketing Blue Iris to a broad range of organisations and agencies, and the number of registrations is increasing each week.

"(Blue Iris) enables valuable investigative time to be focused on the issue under investigation, rather than finding out who owns what CCTV equipment."

I believe West Australia is the first to implement a CCTV camera registration program (found here).  The voluntary nature of this program does not appear to be effective for various reasons.  Perhaps there was not enough budget to "raise awareness" to business owners or there was a breakdown in communication between police departments or local businesses.

Other cities considering such a program should think about making this registration process mandatory and charge a fee.  By charging a "camera registration fee", those monies can support awareness campaigns and also salaried full time employees to maintain the camera registration list.