A re-elected Nick Reece as Lord Mayor will install an additional 200 cameras across Melbourne, supercharging the city’s network of Safe City Cameras to help keep residents, traders, and visitors safe.
The $13.65m investment will almost double the number of cameras in the city and be the largest ever City of Melbourne investment in the network.
Working closely with Victoria Police to identify the exact camera locations, the new high-tech cameras will prioritise city Hot Spots and Black Spots – areas wherever crime rates and anti-social behaviour are at their highest, or busy retail areas where there is a gap in the network with no CCTV coverage.
The Safe City Camera Program will also be extended to parts of the city that have not had CCTV previously including busy retail strips and high traffic areas in Southbank, Docklands, Carlton, West Melbourne, North Melbourne and Kensington.
We know residents and traders want to see more cameras in more neighbourhoods, so we’re getting on with the job. Capturing and tracking these incidents on high-tech cameras also means Victoria Police can work smarter, not harder – with real-time intel to stop crime in its tracks and help keep Melburnians safe from crime.
Over the past decade, our Safe City Cameras captured 47,258 incidents across the central city. Safe City Camera footage can be live-streamed to triple-zero operators and first responders, and live footage has been used over 30,000 times in the past decade to stop crime in its tracks.
The investment will also support expanding our Safe City Camera Control Room team to ensure there are more resources keeping watch over the city and working closely with Victoria Police to spot and track incidents across the city when they happen.
Under the plan, a City of Melbourne security patrol vehicle will be fitted with 360-degree CCTV surveillance cameras and will operate on Melbourne streets seven days a week. The vehicle currently only operates on weekends.
Alongside identifying criminal activity, a re-elected Nick Reece as Lord Mayor will expand the remit of the Safe City Camera network so staff can monitor and act on other Council priorities – like cleaning up graffiti, dirty pavements and overflowing bins.
We expect the rollout to these new areas will take around two years. We will then investigate expanding the network to Parkville and East Melbourne.
Quotes attributable to Lord Mayor Nick Reece:
“As Lord Mayor, my message to criminals can’t be any clearer: if you do the crime, you’ll be caught by our cameras, and you’ll do the time.”
“I want to make our city cleaner and safer – that’s why if I am re-elected I will take the practical step to almost double the number of cameras across the City of Melbourne because I know it works.”
“By keeping an eye on the city 24/7 and working hand-in-glove with Victoria Police, our Safe City Camera network will help keep Melbourne cleaner and safer than ever.”
Quotes attributable to Councillor Roshena Campbell and Deputy Lord Mayor candidate:
“We know that women and students report the highest levels of feeling unsafe, especially at night. We want a Melbourne where every single person can walk the streets safely.”
“No one should have to put up with criminal and anti-social behaviour – an expansion of the Safe City Camera network will help make sure this happens.”
Figure 1: Map of Safe City Camera Program network