On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 07:15:23 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 23:11:45 on
Mon, 18 Sep 2017, Charles Ellson remarked:

I've been working in one of many areas where that is exactly what
is done when an offender leaves the scene of their crime. They're
generally too thick to go off down a side street so we've often
watched the police with us just waiting for them to walk/run past.

How are the police alerted to the flight of the alleged offender so
soon?

Through a set of the local authority's radios used by door staff,
police, street wardens and others.

I'm surprised to find that's the idea behind the cameras where I live.

Your area might not use them the same way as Lambeth.

Surprised because I know the police station (where the feeds end up) is
unmanned at the times when they would be most useful.

Meanwhile, I was looking at one of the pan/tilt cameras on a street
corner (T-junction) earlier today, and it simply cycles between each of
the three directions every 15-20 seconds.

That would suggest it is mainly for observing the traffic when in that
style of use.

Antisocial behaviour.

That tends to happen at night. If the cameras are available then it
would seem to be sensible to use them for observing the traffic at
other times. In the above case, the cameras are usually "parked"
around 4am after the clubs have closed, not necessarily all aimed at
something as at least one (not at a junction) is just left pointing
down.

It might be findable on one of the various websites that get feeds from
cameras.

No, and the pictures it takes are virtually inaccessible to the public
even under SAR. I've never seen quite such a lots of bogus reasons why
they could refuse