Ben Bentley learns more about the cameras that follow our every move.

For 24 hours a day it is their job to watch live reality television.

With episodes of sex, drugs and violence laid bare on screen, this is Big Brother – but not as we know it.

From a small office at the back of Shrewsbury Police station, the small but dedicated CCTV operation team watch a continual stream of footage of Shropshire people going about their daily lives.

Images of goings-on are beamed back to a bank of TV screens from 35 cameras in the town  and from many more in parts of Telford including Wellington, Dawley and Oakengates.

“There can be dull moments but you are always watching because something might happen,” says Adam, one of the CCTV operators who does not wish to be fully identified for fear of reprisals.

But the storylines to Shropshire’s live reality TV show are somewhat predictable in terms of viewing schedules.

“It’s traffic between eight and nine o’clock in the morning, thefts from shops during the day and fighting in the evening,” adds Adam.

If these are the highlights of the show, Adam admits they are a huge generalisation. And reassuringly they are quite a rarity in Shropshire.

Community Safety Officer Dave Roberts.

The cameras are more regularly used by stores involved in a Shopwatch scheme during live incidents of theft and fraud, solving cases of lost children and instances of other people who have gone missing.

“We get lost children all the time,” says Dave Roberts, council community safety officer who oversees the CCTV operation here. “But the cameras link up like pieces of a jigsaw, so if a child is lost on one camera it has to turn up on another.

“People think we watch and zoom in on people all day, but we can’t. If someone rings up and says so-and-so is a known thief and he’s in town we cannot turn the camera on him, but if police say his is in town and he’s stolen a purse, an offence has been committed and we can – the evidence starts then.”

But the cameras come into their own when there is a serious incident. Police can order cameras to record certain live incidents, so long as the request to “rip” a camera is signed by the council’s chief executive and a police superintendent.

“A camera can then be turned on a property if it is being used for drugs or paedophilia,” Dave continues.

Another major use of CCTV is in football “spotting”, where movements of fans known to police can be monitored, especially when intelligence indicates a pre-arranged fight.

Dave adds: “And when police make an arrest we record that because you are looking after the police and the public at the same time – it’s to protect the police and the public if something goes wrong.”

A new camera was installed near Welsh Bridge earlier this year where people are prone to jumping in the river.

And monitoring the river in flood has become a new role for the surveillance crew. Recently a man slipped into the swollen Severn in Quarry Park and disappeared from the footage. Police were alerted and rescued him.

And Quarry Park now has cameras to monitor the children’s play area, a move which Dave says immediately stopped certain types of people hanging around the toilet area.

Dave points to a screen which shows the viewpoint of the Quarry camera which is trained on a nearby bench and says: “There was a blackspot there – the bin was hiding the bench so we switched them round and by moving the litter bin people stopped taking drugs there.”

Sex in the park? It has been known.

“Two people were having sex and they had to send the police down there to say did they know there’s a camera ‘watching’,” adds Dave.

All footage is recorded, archived and can be trawled through by police for evidence.

Dave puts some of the more unsavoury sides of Shropshire life on screen. One piece of footage captures a man absconding with his baby following an argument with his partner.

There are gruesome images of rival gangs punching it out in the street, and a huge late night brawl which started over a taxi.

Another piece of footage shows a fight outside Shrewsbury Library, which is only stops when an elderly lady passes by.

“This happened on my first day here,” says Adam. “You do feel the adrenalin because what is happening in front of you is serious, but you have to maintain a sense of calm.

“It can be hard to watch if someone is getting hurt but I think you become slightly de-sensitised to it after a while.”

Dave adds: “I don’t walk around town without thinking about the CCTV cameras but they make me feel quite safe. The people who have a problem are often the people who are doing something wrong.”

Last year’s figures collated by the CCTV team show how effective the cameras are: 79 arrests were made as a result of Shopwatch and Pubwatch-linked surveillance operations; 88 as a result of CCTV operatives alone; and 70 as a result of police communications. All of the images are digital quality and can be used as evidence in court.

“It’s not always young people, don’t let them tell you that,” says Dave.

Team members recall how they watched as a group of respectable-looking dinner party guests emerged from a hotel in evening wear, only for one of the males of the party to take a leak in a shop doorway.

Unluckily for him, the dandy’s toilet training habits were caught on camera. With the cost of spending a penny in public these days standing at £80 in the form of a spot fine, the police showed up with options.

Says team member Glenys Jones: “They said ‘We can do this two ways – we can take you back to the station and collect a mop and bucket and you can clean it up, or you can have a ticket.

“He went for the bucket option.”

Smile, and next time you are out and about remember this: you are on film and the star of Shropshire’s own reality TV show.

By Ben Bentley