Cameras capture the bizarre and dangerous

CCTV cameras Archant

THREATS with a claw hammer, the abduction of two children and a man brandishing a handgun are just a few of the reported incidents highlighted by Weston’s CCTV cameras in a two-month period.

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North Somerset Council operators pointed cameras at hundreds of reported incidents in the town during August and September, including fights at bars in Regent Street, antisocial behaviour by youths on housing estates and a man photographing children.

Town centre nightspots were host to several fights, assaults and reports of disturbances, with 13 incidents reported at Dragon Kiss, including two arrests.

The authority says the cameras, totalling 142 across North Somerset as of last year, have been ‘instrumental’ in detecting crime, and their use led to 720 arrests in 2012.

Police arrested a man in Beaufort Road after he pointed a handgun at someone before walking off, the North Somerset Council logs reveal.

A man was arrested ‘for his own safety’ after being stuck up to his knees in mud, while cameras were used to follow a man who threatened another with a claw hammer before driving off in Upper Bristol Road.

Cameras were also used to investigate reports of two children being abducted.

The incident, on September 15, saw the car located by police and stopped – although the force says it has no further details on the incident.

Threats to kill a police officer and reports of a man ‘attempting to get young males to perform sexual acts on each other’ in Merton Close were also investigated.

Reports of a man wielding a pitchfork chasing another man with blood on his face at about 11am in Station Road were investigated, while two men were reported to be ‘pushing a wheelbarrow in suspicious circumstances’ on the Bournville estate.

At 4.25am on August 4, two men were captured on camera walking down the street ‘with their pants around their knees’ with one man urinating as he walked.

Police were then called and handed the men ‘request to leave’ orders.

Cameras also looked into reports of a man exposing himself to a child in the Sovereign Shopping Centre and a man who flashed a young girl in Graham Road.

CCTV also spotted a group of men damaging The Bristol Queen at its moorings in Knightstone Causeway. Police turned up and sent a man back to secure the vessel.

An ‘emotional’ man tried to pull the doors off the police station in Walliscote Road while a woman was arrested at the former Ocean Grill for alleged racial abuse against staff.

Several incidents of youth antisocial behaviour were caught on the Oldmixon estate, including two young men caught on camera sword-fighting with plant leaves, a large group lifting rubbish bins and a group of youths persistently breaking a dispersal order, leading police to take two girls home to their parents.

The logs also state that on September 7 in Regent Street: “One male seen chasing another male, catching up with him then laying into him with punches and kicks before making off as a passenger in a vehicle.”

A spokesman for North Somerset Council said: “So far this year the CCTV control room has been involved in over 4,500 incidents.

“The cameras are operated around the clock by a team of 13 staff dedicated to ensuring the streets of Weston, Clevedon, Nailsea and Portishead are safe places to visit.

“This isn’t to say that areas which don’t have CCTV are necessarily unsafe but where it is present it does help residents and visitors alike feel better protected.

“Working in partnership with police, CCTV is still proving to be instrumental in preventing and deterring crime as well as a valuable tool in investigating crime. In 2012 police viewed CCTV on 867 occasions and it was involved in 720 arrests.”