The CCTV system went live only two weeks ago and already one tape has been seized for investigation outside the area.

    The types of crime police hope that the system will help to fight include burglaries, criminal damage, anti-social crimes and hooliganism. And as police point out, 50 per cent of the buildings on the Main Street are occupied by residents, the presence of the cameras should make people living in the centre of town feel safer.

    Fivemiletown is a gateway for people travelling both to the west and east. Located on an arterial route, 99 per cent of the crime in the town is perpetrated by criminals from outside the area. Over the last couple of years it has been relatively common for police to intercept criminal units from outside the area.

    “The deterrent factor will be immeasurable. How will we know what crimes will have been prevented?” commented Inspector Alywin Barton.

    Three cameras have been elevated on poles overlooking Main Street, Edfield Way and at the rear of the Valley Hotel. The system, which cost just over £69,000, is sophisticated enough to allow police to focus the cameras on a particular spot or swivel around to cover a wide area. Rainy days do not pose too much of a problem as screen wipers remove any stray raindrops from obscuring the lens.

    A partnership of representatives of Fivemiletown Chamber of Commerce, the community development association, the Community Policing Forum, the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council and the RUC came together almost a year ago to prepare a bid for funding from the Police Authority. It was the second and last tranche of funding from the Authority for partnership bids from local communities. 90 per cent of the funding was secured from the Police Authority and the remaining 10 per cent from the District Council. Local traders are funding recurring costs of £3,000 per year. Recurring costs include the costs of linking into the existing monitoring room in Dungannon Police Station and maintenance.

    The cameras record life on the streets of Fivemiletown 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The monitoring room in Dungannon Police Station has a telephone line dedicated to Fivemiletown which officers may dial up. This link-up allows officers there to move and focus the cameras in Fivemiletown from the remote location of Dungannon. The state-of-the-art digital recording system based at Fivemiletown is the latest to be produced by Sony. Dungannon’s recording equipment works on lapsed time while the Fivemiletown system works on real time. “Either is equally good in evidence,” said Inspector Barton.

    Out of the 11 partnerships that got funding from the Police Authority, Fivemiletown is the first to go live. Last week, members of the local community joined with representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the Police Authority and Dungannon Council to mark the launch of the system.

    As to peoples’ concerns about their privacy, Inspector Barton said that police monitoring the cameras follow a strict code of practice. “Officers monitoring are conscious of a code of practice and that is a reassurance to people that the system will not invade their privacy,” he said.

    “The buildings in Fivemiletown are 50 per cent residential. People are living along the Main Street and there is the added feeling of safety that these cameras provide,” he said.

    Chairman of the Fivemiletown Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Gary Millar, noted that the attendance at last week’s launch of the system at the Buttermarket in the town included many members of the local community. He believes it is the perception of the presence of the cameras that will help in the fight against crime in the town. “The last few Saturday nights have been very quiet,” he pointed out.

    As proprietor of a shop on the Main Street, he believes there are very real benefits for traders too. “Three years ago, my window was broken at 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve night. I was thinking if I had that link-up, I would be able to dial in. It would have been lovely to link-up and report the guy,” he said. Once technical details are finalised, a leaflet will be delivered to Fivemiletown addresses giving details of a telephone number people can ring should they see a crime being committed.

    Inspector Barton explained that the phone call would go straight to Dungannon, where monitoring officers would open up the telephone line and immediately view the area concerned. Evidence could be gathered on tape.

    Fivemiletown’s success in winning the bid was due to community action, Mr. Millar believes. “We all got together as one group and went for it and put the bid in. It had to be community driven,” he said.

    Congratulations for their efforts at the launch last week came from Mr. Pat Armstrong, Chairman of the Police Authority. “I know that a lot of work has gone into this project in a very short timescale. I know that a number of agencies have been working very hard in partnership to make CCTV a reality for Fivemiletown. It is recognised that CCTV on its own cannot solve all the problems of crime, but it has proved to be a very valuable weapon — along with other methods — in the fight against crime.