Perth Public Safety – City Operations Project

April 4, 2023


Project Overview

In selecting projects for the Scotland’s 8th City – the Smart City ERDF programme Perth and Kinross Council sought to improve and enhance the Public Space CCTV (PSCCTV) system in Perth. This was progressed in partnership with the other Tayside authorities of Angus Council and Dundee City Council; Angus was ineligible for ERDF funding (which was limited to cities for this Strategic Intervention) but joined the partnership with capital funding.

A joint working group was established which quickly determined the city management ambitions of each partner. For Perth, this led to a vison for a public safety, traffic management, and city centre management system that would:

  • Develop a new camera infrastructure, replacing analogue cameras with digital, and allow the Council to maximise the benefits of investment in CCTV.
  • Create a new control or ‘City Operations Centre’ that would bring together CCTV use for public space, traffic, building, car park and other purposes, extending potentially to incorporate private CCTV monitoring of shops and offices in the city centre.
  • Be capable of supporting the enhanced capabilities of video analytics that would create efficiencies across policing, fire and Council Services including Roads, Environment and Safer Communities.
  • Gather and integrate camera data on incidents and events with other data, for example on deprivation and crime.
  • Provide opportunities to leverage additional funding and integrate cameras into a flexible and effective system; and
  • See the new system established in a lawful, transparent and ethical framework.

The project took an ‘Infrastructure and cameras combined’ approach from the outset ensuring that the digital connectivity was in place whilst cameras were being replaced and facilities connected together.

Public Space CCTV monitoring console

Why is it needed?

The Perth City Centre Public Space CCTV system was introduced in the 1990’s – paid for by the Council and operated by Tayside Police from their Barrack Street Headquarters. The system worked well initially, and a Joint Maintenance Contract was established between partner councils in Angus and Dundee. This created a partnership between the Police and the councils but the 3 systems remained separate entities, owned by the respective councils.

By 2014, there had been little new investment in the Perth CCTV network and it was becoming difficult to fully and effectively operate the system; an Urban Traffic Control capability had been established but was underused and had low capability. The Dundee, Angus, and Police infrastructure were similarly in need of development and it was time for action.

Impact and Benefits

The Perth City Operations Centre Project has:

  • Established co-location with Community Alarms Control Room which has been brought into the Community Safety Hub at Perth Community Fire Station to become the City Operations Centre, now linked to gigabit speed full fibre connection.
  • Carried out a Community Consultation, promoted widely through social and traditional media to establish broad public support.
  • Established a new, secure Urban Traffic Control system at Council Offices in Perth.
  • Installed further Community Safety Cameras, new CCTV systems in Bus Station, Criminal Justice Offices and Park and Ride Waiting Rooms, new traffic cameras, and a new re-deployable camera – all of which are operated flexibly across the new infrastructure.
  • Established a new project, The CCTV Integration Project, to continue this work.
  • Is developing projects to extend CCTV into smaller communities across Perth and Kinross Council, starting with Crieff and Auchterarder.

The project has been a success: The vision to create a joined-up City Operations Centre in Perth, has effectively been achieved. Many of the cameras have been replaced, the public has been consulted and are supportive of CCTV, and good links have been made with Dundee and Angus Councils to the extent that Tayside Police have established a new, improved CCTV control room in Dundee.  The next phase will be to complete the camera replacement, fully connect the City Operations Centre and continue the process of bringing more CCTV into the coordination offered there.

Perth and Kinross Council services, Police Scotland, SFRS, communities across Perth and Kinross and our Local Authority partners will continue to work together to maximise the benefits of our collective investment but none of it could have been achieved without the support of the 8th City programme and the European Regional Development Fund!

Contact details and further info:

Roddy Ross, Safer Communities Team Leader, Perth & Kinross Council, Rross@pkc.gov.uk