Crime prevention programme launched with Kenilworth Watch group

The new CCTV register programme, which is already successfully operating in Finham, will help Kenilworth Watch in their daily liaison with Warwickshire Police while also contributing towards preventing crime in the area.

Kenilworth Watch covers all of Kenilworth including Red Lane and Burton Green.

The system doesn't involve live access to people's CCTV. The register enables a quick way to identify where CCTV is situated across the town, potentially saving hours of footwork by the police in the event of investigating an incident.

A spokesperson for Kenilworth Watch said: "We are pleased to confirm that Kenilworth now has a CCTV register in place.

"We are encouraged with the prompt response in the first 24 hours from residents across our town and community.

"However, we need to get the message out there because we believe there are many more properties with CCTV and we'd like them to consider joining and signing up to the register."

"The system which nearby Finham Neighbourhood Watch has designed and given to Kenilworth has the potential to provide a community-wide facility that could be invaluable to our police in saving them time when investigating incidents.

"There is the added benefit of getting householders signed up is it sends out a strong message that Kenilworth is not a good destination for those that are considering committing a crime such as a burglary, theft, car theft and criminal damage.

"The scheme has the potential to demonstrate the community is taking a unified and team approach to preventing crime and detecting offenders."

How it Works

In the event of suspicious or criminal activity, Kenilworth Watch already regularly puts out crime alerts.

From now on, when something has happened we will be able to send a targeted email to residents who are on the CCTV register and who may be nearby to the incident.

The email will ask the householder to review their CCTV to see if it captures anything that might be related to the incident that has been described.

A spokesperson for Kenilworth Watch added: “If the householder identifies images that they think might be useful, they email us the images back. We, with the householder's permission, can then let our Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team know.”

Why set up a CCTV Register System

A CCTV register and communications process can save countless hours of police time in trying to ascertain if and where any CCTV that might help is situated and also help identify any CCTV images that might be useful.

The spokesperson for Kenilworth Watch added: “It is a brilliant way for members of the community to help protect their own and the wider community's property while at the same time helping our police service to detect and prevent crime more efficiently.”

If you have CCTV all you have to do is let them know. There's no charge, and your data remains private and confidential.

Kenilworth’s Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT from Warwickshire Police) supports the creation of a CCTV register by Kenilworth Watch.

It's simple, if you have CCTV at your house or premises you can let Kenilworth Watch know. They do not require access to the CCTV system. All that's needed is an email address (along with the address of the location of your cameras) so they can contact you without delay should an incident occur in or around your area.

Data Protection

The email and personal address details are held securely, are not shared with any third parties. In the event of any images being useful to the police in an investigation, your permission is sought beforehand.

The CCTV register meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations 2019 (GDPR). Consequently, you can request your personal details are removed and erased completely at any time.

Fraser said: “We would point out that there are localised Neighbourhood Watch schemes that operate within parts of Kenilworth and we do not replace those. If you have a local scheme, we'd encourage you to engage with it.”

Kenilworth Watch seeks to keep the community as a whole up to date with police alerts and information via an immediate online system that anyone can sign up to that automatically and immediately sends out an email the minute an alert is issued. The alerts are also sent out directly by Twitter too.

The CCTV register is securely stored and managed and meets GDPR requirements.

Any householder that has CCTV and would like to join the scheme can do so by emailing their name, address, email and ideally their telephone number to [email protected]