CCTV eye on graffiti

By Ed Merrison
LOCAL police, politicians and community leaders are looking to boost CCTV surveillance in Upwey in a bid to wipe out graffiti and discourage criminal behaviour.
Upwey already has CCTV around the shopping centre and at the rail station, but there are concerns that blind spots still exist.
Monbulk MP James Merlino has entered preliminary discussions with Senior Sergeant Doug Berglund, of Belgrave police, Upwey Village Consultative Committee secretary Mark Addison and Upwey High School principal Greg Holman regarding the possibility of bolstering the surveillance system around the subway, a target for graffiti.
“It’s early days, but I’m still definitely supportive of the concept.
“Cameras are a good tool for reducing crime and graffiti in and around the station, and we’ll be working to see if we can make it a reality,” Mr Merlino said.
Sen Sgt Berglund said Lilydale station had experienced a dramatic fall in crime since a recent upgrade to its CCTV system, with criminals detected and successfully identified in court cases as a result of footage.
Sen Sgt Berglund said the police did not support the concept of Big Brother-style blanket coverage, and Upwey would not be looking at installing a system as elaborate and expensive as the Lilydale model.
“This system works as a cheap, unpaid watchman,” he said.
Streeton Ward councillor Noel Cliff welcomed the possibility of cameras, but insisted that CCTV surveillance be backed up by increased police presence.
“Anything that tries to stop (Upwey) getting trashed has got to be good,” he said. “But cameras are only good if we’ve got police who can see them pretty much straight away, and they’ve got to be clear enough that we can see who these people are and nail them.”
Cr Cliff said the money wasted cleaning up graffiti and vandalism was staggering, and said it would be worth spending money on cameras to collect information to lead to prosecutions.
But Cr Cliff said cameras could not be a substitute for police presence.
“You can’t just have police driving through, because these kids know where to run and hide. We need to budget so police can spend more time in these trouble spots,” he said.