Victoria Police launches new CCTV initiative

North Melbourne Police Station is partnering with local communities across Melbourne’s inner-city to create a secure database of all of the locations of private and business-owned CCTV cameras. 

The Melbourne North unit is working alongside local police stations at Melbourne West and Melbourne East, and calling on locals across North and West Melbourne, Kensington, Carlton, Parkville and Docklands for their assistance with the safety initiative. 

Melbourne North neighbourhood policing coordinator Acting Sergeant Nick Parissis said Victoria Police was partnering with local communities to record CCTV locations to improve service delivery and investigative efficiency within the City of Melbourne. 

CCTV owners have the option to provide Victoria Police with their contact details to aid police in investigations. 

In the event that an incident occurs, police may contact registered CCTV owners in the vicinity of an incident to request access to CCTV footage. 

“In the past when canvassing for CCTV following a crime or incident, police would sometimes have to spend hours walking up and down a street/shopping centre checking from home to home or business to business whether they had CCTV footage,” Mr Parissis said. 

With the electronic mapping of CCTV, which Vic Pol is now implementing, investigators will be able to do these checks from a computer to determine if there are any registered CCTV locations recorded on our mapping portal. If there is, a quick phone call will be all that’s required.

Mr Parissis said police had ensured that all personal details would be securely stored in its database, and that it was important to know that police would not have access to any CCTV footage unless the owner of the CCTV agrees. 

For those that wish to provide the location of their CCTV, they will be emailed a one-page form to complete and return to their local police station.

For more information or to participate in the initiative, you can contact your local police station at either Melbourne North 8379 0800, Melbourne West 9624 3999 or Melbourne East 9637 1100. •