Clippings (July-Sep 1997)Clippings (July-Sep 1997)T&A, 2/7/97
A confidential Council document suggests that officers may target Bingley roads protesters with new high-tech spy cameras to be installed in Shipley this year.
The council has now been accused of Big Brother tactics by the protesters who insist they are not criminals but merely opponents of council policy.
The document forms part of the council's bid to the Home Office for financial support for the camera system, which proved successful three months ago. The five new Spy cameras will add to the 50 already installed across the district at a cost to date of £1.5 million.
The report says: "Shipley is also attracting Bingley bypass protesters who are camped 2 mls from the centre. The Police view is that this situation can only worsen as this protest becomes the Newbury of the North ".
Oliver Robinson, one of the protesters, said: "Bradford Council has admitted that it will use CCTV cameras to monitor its political opponents. Big Brother is a reality. Why are we considered a problem for Shipley when we are fighting to stop a road that will massively increase congestion in the town?"
Anthony Taylor, spokesman for the 1 in 12 Club which opposes the new cameras, said: "Whatever you think of the protesters, they are simply opponents of council policy, not criminals."
Councillor Jim Flood (Lab, Bingley) said: "The cameras are for the town centre, not the surrounding countryside. They are an objective way of recording events."
by Olwen Vasey, T&A, 14/7/97
Bradford Council has brought out a pioneering "peoples plan" to take the district into the next century. It takes into consideration the views of 4000 residents who sent questionnaires back to City Hall outlining their hopes for the district in the years ahead.
Some people felt so strongly that they wrote separate letters to the Council because they could not fit what they wanted to say on to the forms.
The district's five Mps were also consulted. Other bodies in talks with the Council about the plan included West Yorkshire Police, Bradford University, Bradford Training & Enterprise Council and Bradford, Bingley and Shipley Councils for Voluntary Services.
Here we summarise the various areas that concerned people the most.
CRIME
The plan includes exploring with West Yorkshire police the ways to increase the number of community officers on the street in high crime areas.
It also looks to improve street lighting and aims to upgrade 5000 existing lights by the year 2000 to make the district's streets safer.
The Council wants to build safety measures into all regeneration programmes, including security lighting and street layouts where people will be able to see each other's properties and where there will be no easy escape routes.
It aims to work with small groups of young people to make sure they are offered stepping stones away from crime.
In view of the strong links established between drug addiction and crime, high priority will be given to multi-agency measures to tackle drug addiction through the district's drug addiction team. The Council wants to establish five anti-crime partnerships in the parts of the district covered by the five area panels.
[ Article edited here; other areas covered include "rebuilding communities", "Education", "Community", and "Regeneration"]
extract from Bradford Councils revised "Community Plan 1997-2000" published July 15 1997
...What we will do
We will continue to develop CCTV in the District in locations where it will have a positive impact fighting crime and fear of crime. We will carry out a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of existing CCTV installations in order to target future CCTV developments into locations where it will be most effective.
...Our targets to year 2000
...Install and upgrade CCTV cameras in locations where it is proved to be effective.
by Alun Palmer, Crime Reporter (T&A 4/8/97)
Some shops and businesses have worthless security systems - and all for the sake of a few pounds, a police chief says.
Many shops and business invest thousands of pounds in closed circuit television systems. But they fail to put in new tapes regularly which renders them next to useless.
Now Detective Inspector Phil Sedgwick, of Bradford central CID, has appealed to Bradford shops, business and garages to sort their equipment out. He said: "These systems are very, very expensive. But what is the point of it all if the tape has been in the machine for years and all you see is snow? There have been countless times when the owners of raided premises say they win have the offender on tape yet when we look at it it is more like a winter scene in Norway with nothing recognisable.
"If owners replaced the tapes regularly then the picture quality would be a lot better and we would be able to see offenders a lot easier. They only cost a couple of quid."
Det Insp Sedgwick also appealed to business to use their cameras effectively training them on the inside of shops during the day and on the window at night. He said: "The thieves often come in through the window and that is where the cameras should be. They would also be invaluable for spotting incidents that happen out on the streets.
"In the case of the Leeds bombing by the IRA, detectives looked at hundreds of shop videos which helped them piece together activity in the area before the bomb went off. If shops trained their cameras at windows then it would be an excellent crime fighting tool."
Fighting the fear of crime
By Olwen Vasey, T&A, 22/8/97
Bradford Council will soon appoint it first criine-buster - in a bid to keep people safe across the district. The authority is to advertise for its first Community Safety Qfficer and is expected to make the appointment next month.
The council is also stepping up its fight against crime by drawing up a far-reaching community safety plan in partnership with the police. The plan is expected to go to the council in December and would swing into action shortly afterwards. Talks will be held with the Government about funding. The action is being taken in preparation for the new Crime And Disorder Bill which will give councils a statutory duty to co-ordinate and promote crime prevention.
The new officer will work in City Hall with West Yorkshire Police newly-appointed Community Safety Co-ordinator, Chief Inspector Joan Simpson.
Today, Councillor John Ruding, chairman of the council's community safety sub-committee, said: "It will be a radical new approach for the district. Fighting crime and making the district safer is going to be a high priority with the controlling Labour group, The co-ordination with the police will make the scheme more effective. We are very pleased about the partnership."
Coun Ruding said the community safety plan was based on three principles. They are:
Stepping stones away from crime - involving crime prevention.
Changing the fear of crime.
Fighting crime.
He said it would be a strong action plan and the council hoped to deliver it as soon as possible. He added officers were looking at a number of initiatives but were likely to carry out a review on Bradford's existing close circuit television system. Coun Ruding said the system was outdated and they would discuss bringing it in line with the outlying towns.
Chief Insp Simpson said she would be working with the council to promote overall cornmunity safety within the distriet.
by SARAH WALSH T&A Reporter (24/9/97)
A persistent Bingley burglar who acted as a one-man crime wave in the town centre has been sentenced to four months in a young offenders' institution.
Andrew David Murgatroyd, 20, of Peel House, Crosley Wood Road, would not co-operate with probation officers or psychiatric advisers and the only option was to lock him up, Bingley magistrates court heard. Murgatroyd, described by his lawyer as "irrational" admitted burgling the Help the Aged shop in Shipley on July 11 and Scarecrow greengrocers in Myrtle Walk, Bingley the following evening. But he also asked for a string of six other similar offences - all committed that week in Bingley - to be taken into account.
His spree of break-ins did not win him much in the way of stolen property, but each shopkeeper was left with hundreds of pounds worth of damage to windows and shopfronts. The Scarecrow greengrocers was hit four times in one week and other victims were the Main Street cafes, Lilly Langtree's and Simply Scrumptious.
Defending, John Holden said: "He has obviously been a terrible inconvenience to shopkeepers in Bingley, especially the poor man who has tried to run the greengrocers' shop. It doesn't look like he was in it for the money- it's just a very peculiar habit he got into during that week."
Magistrates sentenced Murgatroyd to two months for the first offence and four for the second, to run concurrently. "We would very much like to have awarded compensation, particularly to the owner of the Scarecrow, but we are unable to do so because of your means," magistrate Mrs S Wood said.
Afterwards, Inspector Jim Hancox said Murgatroyd's arrest was partly due to the town's CCTV cameras: "Officers studied footage and thought they recognised Murgatroyd, who was already known to police," he said. "We were then able to link him with the crimes through fingerprint evidence." He said the security cameras had largely knocked Bingley's problems with shop burglaries and vandalism on the head. The series of offences in July had appeared as a 'blip' in the figures. In August - while Murgatroyd was in custody awaiting trial - there were no such offences.
CCTV cameras were introduced in Bingley in January 1996.
Police figures show the total number of crime incidents in the town centre for the first nine months of this year was 43 compared with 69 last year, 132 in 1995 and 102 in 1994,
Damage and burglary this year amounted to 21 incidents, compared with 30 in 1996, 71 in 1995 and 42 In 1994. Thefts of and from vehicles stood at 60 in 1994, rising to 61 in 1995 and then dropping to 39 last year with 22 reported so far in 1997.
T&A 30/9/97
Police chiefs claim their controversial shake-up which cut the number of officers at Bingley police station has resulted in a 20 per cent cut in crime. But today Bingley campaigners called for a more detailed breakdown in the figures - fearing that problems in Bingley were hidden in district-wide averages.
Councillor Eileen Sinclair (Lab, Bingley) welcomed the drop in crime but said she would like more detailed figures showing the crime rate in Bingley itself before and after staffing was cut back.
"I'd like to see more information," she said. "Then we would know if crime was going down in Bingley or only in Keighley."
Councillor Margaret Eaton (Con, Bingley Rural) added: "I remain to be convinced about this new strategy - we should be able to have good investigations and adequate policing for the villages, not either/or."
There was a massive public outcry at the beginning of the year when leaked reports suggested that the Bingley police presence could be cut to just three officers. Superintendent Steve Priestley modified his plans in the face of wide opposition and agreed to maintain "a substantial number" of officers at Bingley He will not reveal how many remain, but the Telegraph & Argus understands there are now 16. There were 24 at the beginning of the year while 18 months ago Bingley had 34.
At the time Supt Priestley defended his unpopular reforms by insisting he needed the officers to work on a 'proactive' basis targeting known criminals across the district. Figures released at last night's Airedale Police Forum show there were 650 fewer crimes committed between April and August than the same period in 1996 - a 20 per cent reduction. Police were unable to provide geographical breakdowns for towns in the division.
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