Criminals warned as CCTV cameras go online in Navan

Navan gardaí this week have an extra weapon in their fight against crime in the town. The long-awaited CCTV cameras for the town, which were first applied for in 2007, have finally been activated and connected to the monitoring centre in the local town hall. A monitoring centre at the local garda station will be connected to the system within a short period of time. However, the delay is not thought to be a major problem and the cameras should connect directly to garda systems "by the end of the week, or at the latest the end" of the month. At the moment, there is a working monitoring desk at Navan Town Council which has access to live feeds and gardai have been supplied with similar facilities. The cameras have been installed at the Kennedy Road footpath outside the Navan Town Centre entrance, at the Trimgate Street and Kennedy Road intersection, on the island at Market Square, at the N3/Meath Chronicle intersection, the Church Hill/Ludlow Street junction, Railway Street roundabout, Trimgate Street/Railway Street intersection, at the Navan Garda Station roundabout on Kennedy Road and at the N3 shopping centre junction. The nine-camera project had been expected to be up and running by Christmas but was delayed by a mixture of factors like funding being released and authorities signing their approval. The project was led by Navan Chamber of Commerce, Navan Town Council and An Garda Siochana, and cost approximately €185,000 to install. Funding of €100,000 was been allocated by An Pobal, which administered the grants for the Department of Justice, and the balance was paid by Navan Town Council. The application was first made for CCTV in 2007 and Navan was announced as one of the towns which had been successful in 2008. The Garda Commissioner only signed off on the scheme in June of last year and Pobal had to make its evaluation of the work programme before issuing the contract. Cllr Tommy Reilly said that while it is a good start, he was disappointed that laneways in the town centre have not come under surveillance. "I welcome it with open arms for the town of Navan, but it's been a long time coming," he said. "It'll be a great asset to gardaí in crime-solving, as well as the town, which now has monuments, shrubs and statues to protect, so I hope it will act as a deterrent to antisocial behavaviour and vandalism. "However, I am disappointed that Metges Lane, Bakery Lane, Preston Place and Trimgate Court and the alleys people come through from the Fair Green, where people park, to Trimgate Street, where they shop, has no coverage. "Also with the laneways not being covered you have a situation where, if someone is attacked, they can duck down a lane and disappear. So while it's a good start, made by Dermot Ahern, by the way, hopefully there will be more to come and I hope Alan Shatter (Fine Gael's Justice Minister) can do the same. We need to get Trimgate Street revitalised and get people onto it," he added. Navan Garda Superintendent Michael Devine said the locations for the cameras were chosen on the basis of them being "focal points" for people congregating, not necessarily for crime, and said that they were a "preventative measure", as well as being helpful with video evidence and public appeals. "They should be functional in a few more days and we obviously think they'll be beneficial to the town, giving us significant coverage over the immediate town area," said Supt Devine. Councillor Joe Reilly said "people need to know that the centre of the town is being monitored by CCTV". He added: "It wasn't possible to do it everywhere but it can help identify people in late night incidents and can be useful for stopping shoplifting, but we have to balance civil liberties, like privacy, obviously. I know it is data protected so as long as it's not intrusive and it will help people if we balance the security of people shopping, for example, with their liberties and rights."