In message , at 02:03:16 on
Wed, 20 Sep 2017, Charles Ellson remarked:
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.

The intention in their write-up is the same.

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.

That's not in fact in their business case. Also, being observable only
at the police station, when these days the police have no interest in
the smooth flow of traffic in town centres. As far as I can see they
don't even turn out to RTAs which block the road unless someone
specifically calls them.

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.

The one I saw was doing its pan-dance in the middle of the day.

--
Roland Perry