The city council's executive has allocated £120,000 in its 2008/09 budget for advanced digital recording equipment, which stores images onto its hard drive instead of relying on traditional video cassettes.
If the proposals are agreed at the budg
et council meeting this month, £30,000 from Chester Community Safety Partnership will also help to pay for the new technology, which will provide higher quality images and generate savings of £5,000 per year by allowing CCTV operators to transfer images onto DVD instead of videotape.
Cllr Neil Ritchie, town hall executive member for environment, said: "The council is extremely proud of the CCTV control room and its highly-skilled operators.
"Moving forward with technology is essential to maintaining the service's excellent standards and this system has been tried, tested and approved at a national level.
"Upgrading our equipment will provide immediate access to recorded images, a quicker, more accurate search facility and improve picture quality to ensure police and other authorities have the evidence they need to take action against offenders."
The city council's CCTV team has helped Cheshire Police with several high-profile cases and contributes to public safety by gathering evidence and sharing intelligence to support police in the city.
The control room was established in Chester Town Hall in July, 2002 following a Home Office grant for a state of the art fibre optic CCTV network.
The following year, Cheshire Police developed its city centre police station in the same building.
In August, 2003, the new community safety centre opened its doors providing an improved sense of safety for residents and visitors to the city.
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