CCTV help needed please.

maggi1

Hi,
we are having loads of trouble with vandals damaging our cars. They are parked on the road in front of our house which is across a small green. It's happening all over the village and is costing us a small fortune. We are thinking about putting a CCTV camera on the front of the house. I've looked at a few sites and want something that's fairly easy to install and straightforward to use. Can anyone suggest or recommend anything please.

Thank you.

ormus

you can buy wireless cctv systems now for less than 100 quid.
dont expect BBC quality pictures.
and if the yobs are wearing hoodies then the piccys are not much use at all.
unless you wanna watch the monitor all night and then chase/catch em?

DirectDebacle

I can understand that you want to do something urgently to prevent further damage to your property but it appears it is just not you that is being affected.

Does your village have a neighbourhood watch scheme? If so then it should be liaising with your local police to tackle the problem. If not, have you and the other victims been reporting the incidents to the police. If not then start doing it now and also report previously unreported incidents. That will make them aware there is an ongoing problem.

The police do have their own surveillance equipment and may decide to deploy it in your village to catch the offenders. In any event they will have a crime prevention officer who will be able to give advice on security measures you can take.

Installing your own CCTV equipment depends to a large extent the purpose that you intend to use it for. Overt for prevention purposes or covert for evidential purposes. The latter is going to be much more expensive.

Bear in mind it is possible that installing overt equipment may have the consequence of your property attracting even more unwelcome attention. Not only damage to vehicles but attempts at damaging the equipment or your home.

Such things need to be carefully considered. I would advise that before making any purchase you discuss the matter with your fellow villagers and the police. A united approach will be more effective than a unilateral one and the most suitable equipment for your needs will emerge from consultation.

Weird_Nev

Indeed: It sounds like you are looking for a 'private' cctv system to do a 'public' cctv systems job.
From personal experience, cheap Cctv systems are just that: Cheap. They don't work well or at all in low light, they don't work well outside. They're not robust enough and themselves become targets for vandalism (becuase they're hard to hide) and so lead to further financial loss. Finally, even if they do capture images ,if they're inexpertly installed then they don't give footage of any evidential value leading to disapointment. There are also legal implications of installing covert surveillance equipment willy-nilly in public areas...
CCTV isn't even a very good deterrent.

Get the neighbours together to make an issue of this problem and get it solved.
Identify your local beat officer or 'safer neighbourhood' team, or neighbourhood watch. If you don't have one set one up.
Inform your local council .Where I work the councils actually have better resources ,some very high end technical kit and more money than the police to throw at problems like this. Also ,in getting the neighbours involved it might get the message out to the little delinquents (who are probably local) that you'll 'av 'em if they don't start bucking their ideas up.
Once it's on the radar hopefully you might get some support ,both from authorities and the community to address the problem. Much better to start to build a community then just try and catch offenders one by one. The catching offenders bit becomes easy once everyone is on side.

Some more 'immediate' advice:
Can you move the cars to somewhere a bit more overlooked?
Can you petition the council to improve lighting?
Consider a car alarm - don't have to be expensive and can deter people if it starts to bleep and draw attention.

daggy

It's a shame you can't camp in your car overnight and use this

Doktor_Jon

maggi1 wrote: »

It's happening all over the village and is costing us a small fortune. We are thinking about putting a CCTV camera on the front of the house. I've looked at a few sites and want something that's fairly easy to install and straightforward to use. Can anyone suggest or recommend anything please.

Hi maggi1

There are lots of CCTV cameras on the market which are easy to install and straightforward to use, but ideally you really want something that is technically and operationally, most appropriate to your needs.

I'd tend to agree that installing an overt camera to try and deter the individuals may not be the most appropriate strategy, particularly as given a history of other issues nearby, there would be quite a high risk of either relocating the problems to an area out of camera shot, or indeed increasing the likelyhood of further attacks, albeit perhaps of a different nature.

Using a covert camera to gather evidence would almost certainly be the most appropriate technique, and in terms of cost, if done correctly it need not be any more expensive than deploying an overt camera.

That said, whilst gathering evidence would be the preferred option for an individual property, if a number of local residents were inclined to set up a community based "SafetyNet" CCTV scheme, that may be a very workable and effective longer term approach to help suppress or deter local criminality.

evoke

You could try an in-car CCTV system.