Policing minister hears of the success of CCTV in visit to police headquarters
Policing minister, Kit Malthouse has been in mid Wales to discuss rural crime and the success of CCTV.
Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn hosted a visit by the MP to Police Headquarters where he was shown around the state-of-the-art CCTV suite as well as meeting with members of the Force’s Rural Crime Team.
The Policing Minister met with CCTV operators at the centralised monitoring suite in Camarthen where over 150 CCTV cameras in over 24 towns in the Dyfed-Powys area are monitored.
As well as helping in the prevention and detection of crime, CCTV is assisting with the protection of vulnerable people in the force, Mr Llywelyn’s said. He pledged in 2016 to ensure that CCTV was reinstated in towns across the Force area to ensure community safety, and effective support for officers on the ground.
Mr Llywelyn said; “It was a privilege to host the Policing Minister here at Headquarters. This is the first time in 10 years that we have hosted a ministerial visit at Police Headquarters, and I am glad that we had the opportunity to showcase the state of the art CCTV infrastructure that we have reinstated here since my time as Police and Crime Commissioner.
“The Minister and his team got to see first-hand the quality of the CCTV footage and was impressed to hear how crucial they have been in recent years in supporting investigations.
“He was also interested in the developments that we have made in recent years to tackle rural crime and had the opportunity to meet some of our Rural Crime Team members, and accompanied them on a visit to a local farm”.
“This visit was an opportunity for me to discuss with him the direction and priorities of my new Police and Crime Plan for Dyfed-Powys Police for the next three years, and I am grateful for the Minister for taking the time to meet with myself and the Chief Officers here at Dyfed-Powys Police.”
Temporary Chief Constable Claire Parmenter said “I am grateful to the Policing Minister for visiting Dyfed-Powys Police in order to see and hear first-hand how our new cctv infrastructure across the force is assisting us in bringing offenders to justice and protecting the most vulnerable in our communities. The ministerial visit also provided us with an opportunity to discuss the benefits that we are seeing from the implementation of our Rural Crime Team as well as our future plans for operation uplift, which is the Governments pledge to increasing the number of police officers across the country including here in Dyfed-Powys.”