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Criminals' cash pays for CCTV
Criminals' cash is paying for personal CCTV cameras for a third of households on a Kettering estate.
The police are using 25,000 taken from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act to buy 700 cameras for houses in the All Saints ward of Kettering to cut robbery, burglary and vehicle crime.
Another 100 are being distributed to repeat victims of crime around the town.
PCSO Christine Cotter said: "We have had a tremendous response from the public. They feel they are getting something back from the criminals."
More than 250 cameras have already been given out in King Street, Princes Street, Regent Street, Crown Street, Wellington Street, Havelock Street and Wood Street and by the time all 800 are handed out, one in three homes in the area will have one.
The cameras are fixed on to the house and must point to the property to avoid privacy issues.
The camera is connected to a normal television inside using cabling.
Owners can flick on to the camera's channel with a remote control if they hear a noise and footage can be recorded using a VCR. Street signs will go up in the area warning potential criminals they are on camera.
Crime was up in All Saints ward in November and December compared to the previous year.
Comparing November and December 2008 to the same months last year, burglaries nearly doubled from seven to 13 and robberies were up from four to five.
Samantha Herring, 30, of Wood Street, Kettering, whose hub caps were stolen recently, said: "It's a very good idea. Cameras are good for preventing crimes such as burglaries.
"They are not going to stop smaller crimes like vandalism straight away, but if they are advertised they will become a deterrent."
More than 1.5m was seized from criminals in Northamptonshire last year.
The cameras will be on show at Park Junior School on February 20, between 9.30am and 11am.
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Weather for Kettering
Sunday 27 May 2012
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