The Council’s CCTV cameras helped bring three criminals to justice last week – a convicted sex offender seen breaking the terms of his ASBO, a vandal damaging a car and man on the run from police for serious firearms offences.

They also helped recover four stolen cars – two of them belonging to Hackney residents - after CCTV Operators spotted them and followed them on camera, guiding police in to catch them.

These are just a few of the many cases that Hackney Council’s CCTV team help with every year. Last year, operators played a vital role in 773 arrests and helped recover vehicles worth over three quarters of a million pounds. In 2007-08 CCTV footage was used as evidence in over 900 cases. In one high profile case, they worked with the police and the UK’s Border Agency to uncover a bogus college that was enabling people from overseas to fraudulently obtain visas

BBC’s Crimewatch recently used Hackney as an example of how effective CCTV footage can be, both in catching criminals and helping ensure that they receive an appropriate sentence when they come to trial as the judge & jury can see just what defendants were accused of.

Cllr Alan Laing, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “CCTV cameras are helping make the streets of Hackney safer and – equally important – they help make people feel safer, too.”