CCTV to catch shameful attacks on fire-fighters

Date published: 04/11/2005

Closed Circuit Television Cameras are to be fitted to four fire engines in Greater Manchester, on a trial basis, in a bid to reduce attacks on fire-fighters.

The locations have been chosen based on statistical evidence which highlights them as “hot-spots” for these types of attack.

This year there have been 164 reported attacks on firefighters, ranging from verbal abuse, stones and bricks being thrown to physical assault - Rochdale, with 15 attacks, has the fourth highest incidence out of the eleven areas covered by the service (up to 3/11/2005).

The high quality fixed mounted cameras will be switched on at the discretion of the Officer in Charge of the fire engine and used to capture images of any would be attackers. Any footage captured will be downloaded from the camera’s hard drive and passed to the police to assist in the prosecution of offenders.

West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service recently installed similar equipment on their fire engines and experienced a 47% reduction in attacks during the first 12 months that they were fitted. The cameras also contributed to the successful conviction of one attacker who was subsequently jailed for 6 months.

Assistant County Fire Officer for Operations, Kieran Nolan said, “It is a sad fact that our firefighters are currently being attacked on average once every two days. These attacks are totally unacceptable and the safety of our crews is of paramount importance. Our aim is to use the cameras as a deterrent but where necessary any video evidence of an attack will be used to assist the police in potential prosecutions.”

The location of the cameras is being not publicised at this time.