Many thanks to the 30 residents and the stakeholder attendees who made time to attend the Public Meeting about CCTV in Pegasus. Special thanks to Pegasus Bay School who kindly let us use their hall.
Background
We initiated this project due to feedback from the community in our last Residents' Survey in 2022 with 'community accessibility, security and safety' coming in at 24%, and the regular posts we see across the Pegasus social media groups about residents wanting to see CCTV in Pegasus.
Below is a summary of the meeting:
Summary of PRGI Meeting
Meeting: Pegasus CCTV Proposal
Date: 22/11/2023
Location: Pegasus Bay School
Time: 7pm – 8.15pm
Stakeholder Attendees:
Ken Howatt – WDC
Rob Irvine, Rebecca Milnes, Suzy Mills – Police
Ken Eccles – CCTV expert
Dalice Stewart, Brent Cairns – NC Neighbourhood Support
Rhonda Mather, Phil Redmond, Brent Cairns - Community Board
Matt James, Kathy Gutberlet, Peter Johnson, Renee Minchin, Heidi Wood - PRGI Committee
Members
Pegasus Residents – 30
Key messages:
The proposed CCTV solution for Pegasus is a “Crime Prevention/Investigative Tool for Safer Communities”. It is not a live monitoring application.
Ken Eccles is helping with the design and specification of the system. He has extensive experience in doing this locally and nationally. He is also assisting Sovereign Palms in their CCTV planning.
CCTV applications such as that proposed for Pegasus have been very successful throughout NZ.
The system records 24/7 but is not monitored. The recorded data is only accessed by the police upon notice of an incident having occurred.
Only the police will have access to the recordings.
Data is held for 3 months and then wiped unless it is being used as part of an ongoing investigation. The data is held in a central location in Rangiora.
The Privacy/Legal implications are well understood and are consistent with similar systems already in use.
The system would plug into the existing national network of cameras. This enables perpetrators to be tracked before and after criminal acts within the bounds of the Pegasus.
Two types of camera technology are used together: (i) General surveillance and (i) Automated numberplate recognition.
The proposed rollout in Pegasus would done in 3 phases.
Phase 1 would have 6-7 cameras in 3 key access locations into Pegasus.
Phase 1 is estimated to cost $10,000. These funds would need to be raised by the community by funding application, sponsorship, or donations.
WDC would be prepared to maintain the cameras critical to the surveillance network.
North Canterbury Neighbourhood Support, as an existing Trust, is geared up to collect funds raised for the Pegasus project.
Signage noting cameras being used would be having to be posted. These signs alone have led to significant reductions in criminal activity in other locations.
Sovereign Palms have already raised $3,200 towards their overall target of $60,000 for their CCTV deployment. They hope to install their first few cameras soon.
Vote on the night:
Following the opportunity for questions from residents, a motion was raised by the PRGI President (Matt James) to progress the project in Pegasus. The motion was approved by a vote of 29 residents in favour with only one abstention noted.
Next Steps:
Commence fundraising applications
Provide regular updates to Pegasus Residents.
We will provide details of how Pegasus Residents can financially contribute to the project in due course.
Any further questions should be sent to prgi@pegasusresidentsgroup.com who can seek appropriate responses from the various stakeholders.
