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The ugly
face of Friday night
A bank of CCTV monitors in the control room |
NOT even the addicts – knows Camden Town’s drug
dealers better than Jim McGinn.
Mr McGinn knows their faces, their wardrobes, their routines,
where they hide their drugs, who they work with and where they’re
from. In Camden’s war on drugs, he is in the front-line
as manager of the CCTV control room where operators spy on drug
users and dealers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Of Camden’s
104 CCTV cameras, 40 in the drugs hotspots of Camden Town, Kentish
Town and Bloomsbury are controlled by Mr McGinn’s team
of three.
In eight hours in the control room on what staff described as
a “quiet Friday night”, but one which became increasingly
violent, the New Journal witnessed:
• 7.30pm: A police sniffer dog team searches people
around the Tube station. Each time someone is stopped by police,
the cameras focus in close – to protect both the suspect
and the officers in the event of a claim of assault.
• 8.45pm: Officers are in pursuit of a speeding
motorbike in Hawley Street. The cameras follow the bike until
it heads out of the borough down Camden Road. Mr McGinn says:
“The Islington control room will be listening in and they
will take over.”
• 10.05pm: A 999-caller reports a drunk on the rampage
in Camden Road, jumping on car roofs. The operators quickly
swivel a camera and spot an upturned bin outside the World’s
End pub. Moments later a swaying, moustachioed man is spotted
on camera outside the Tube station and arrested.
• 11.25pm: A drug deal is spotted by Camden Lock.
The operator sends pictures to the police in Kentish Town. But
no officers attend the scene. The footage will be logged and
may be later used to secure an Asbo against the dealer.
• 1.30am: The radio reports an assault at Koko in
Camden High Street and operators train their cameras on the
front door.
• 1.35am: Teenage moped thieves are on the run in
Somers Town. Cameras are set on all possible escape routes along
Eversholt Street. Two arrests are made.
• 2.10am: Five girls brawl in the street outside
Tasty Corner in Camden Town. As the camera trails the fighting
girls, the aftermath of another fight, between men, becomes
apparent. Police have detained one shirtless man but they allow
the girls to pass.
• 2.30am: Three agitated crack addicts are spotted
buying drugs at the bus stop outside Sainsbury’s in Camden
Town. No police attend. The footage is logged. |
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