Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership
Partnership Warns Camera Vandalism will not be tolerated

	The Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership is committed to influencing, educating and encouraging motorists on the roads of Derbyshire to slow down, stick to the speed limit and help reduce the number of speed related collisions and casualties through a combination of education, publicity and enforcement.
	The Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership is a road safety partnership consisting of Derbyshire Constabulary, Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Highways Agency, Derbyshire Magistrates Service and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Partnership is responsible for safety camera (Speed and Red Light) operation and related activity in Derbyshire. The Partnership is also responsible for a wide range of speed and casualty reduction activities.

Speed Kills

and inappropriate speed is a major contributory factor in road collisions. Every year 3500 people die on the roads of Great Britain, and every two weeks, three people die, 22 are seriously injured, and 169 people are slightly injured on the Derbyshire road network.

The Partnership is one of 38 partnerships across the country operating under the Government National Safety Camera Initiative. This initiative allows the Partnership to claim back its operating costs from money generated by local speeding and red light violation fines. This, in effect, makes the partnership a self-funding organisation.

“24 March 2005 | Partnership Warns Camera Vandalism will not be Tolerated”

DERBYSHIRE Safety Camera Partnership is warning vandals who set fire to safety cameras that their reckless behaviour will not be tolerated.

The warning comes after a fixed camera on Chatsworth Road, in Chesterfield was severely damaged by fire in the early hours of Sunday (March 20, 2005) when a burning tyre was placed on top of it.

Not only did the attack cause up to £20,000 worth of damage to the camera but a car parked nearby was also badly damaged in the blaze.

Inspector Matt Pickard, from Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership said: “This kind of mindless vandalism directly affects innocent members of the public. “On this occasion property has been damaged but it is only a matter of time before someone is injured or worse through this irresponsible behaviour. “If this happens the culprits will not just be facing charges for criminal damage.”

Police are currently examining all CCTV in the area in the hope that the offender has been captured on camera.
The incident comes just two months after £8,000 of damage was caused to another fixed camera on Derby Road, in Chesterfield following a similar arson attack.
The films from both of the cameras were unscathed in the attacks and the partnership has still been able to send notices of intended prosecution out to all of the offenders.

The partnership is now in the process of arranging surveillance of certain fixed safety cameras to ensure that people who damage or attempt to damage cameras can be identified and punished.

Since the introduction of Road Safety Cameras over ten years ago there has been a negative attitude from the majority of road users towards the use of “revenue generating” equipment. This has caused problems for Camera Partnerships around the UK with campaign groups being set up to discredit the use of speed cameras as a means of reducing accidents. Indeed, these activities have now escalated to a new level which includes the destruction of equipment causing millions of pounds worth of damage.

Derbyshire Camera Partnership has not escaped from the onslaught of destruction with targeted cameras being damaged on a regular basis. On some sites this has happened so often that the authorities had decided not to replace the equipment as there was a high probablility the unit woud be damaged within a few hours of replacement.
To this end a solution had to be found to combat this ongoing problem. Margaret Ward the project manager for Derbyshire Camera Partnership then contacted Watchman for help. Various demonstrations ensued with a decision to utilise the Watchman DOME for the job.

The Watchman DOME is mounted on its own pole close to the particular Speed Camera to be monitored. The DOME’s on board “motion detection” system is set to detect on any movement on or near the camera.  Any activation would result in high resolution images being taken at the scene day or night. A facility to report the alarm activation back to a central station is also a feature of the DOME 3G facility.

Derbyshire Camera Partnership took delivery of four Watchman DOME units in November 2005 which were put to immediate use. Since this time there have been no incidences of damage at any of the chosen sites, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds in repairs not to mention the confidence the Authority now has in ensuring these
Speed Cameras are well protected. Several other Camera Partnerships have now shown interest in the Watchman DOME to protect their valuable roadside assets.  West Yorkshire Camera Partnership have procured two units to help their fight against vandalism.