Burglaries Highlighted After Assault

While a man has been assaulted during a burglary at his home in a County Armagh village, residents in a Belfast suburb have been warned to take greater care in securing their homes from thieves - even though additional CCTV coverage is about to come 'online'.

In the early hours of this morning, four men broke into the house in Magheralin, between Moira to Lurgan, and were confronted by the householder whom they had disturbed in the 3am raid.

When he would not give them his car keys, he was hit on the head and sustained some minor bruising in the assault.

They took keys from the handbag of a woman in the house and made off in the couple's car, a black Honda Civic - the woman was left shocked.

Meanwhile, also last night, the police have warned residents in the Glengormley area to take more care about security at their homes – even though new CCTV cameras will soon be covering even more of the local area.

Antrim Line Community Policing Forum heard that a number of the burglaries in the ward over the previous six weeks had occurred during the day and that it would appear some victims had been careless about checking that windows and doors were properly secured.

The new area officer, Inspector Martin Ruddy, told a packed Policing Forum meeting – held at Mossley Mill – that high value items such as TVs and jewellery had been taken in the incidents and that almost all had involved the thieves entering premises through windows and doors that had been left unlocked.

"Thieves," he said, "were simply going round the back of private houses and climbing through open windows or doors that had not been secured, something that was obviously avoidable," he said.

However, going into some detail, Community Policing Sergeant Colin Crymble also explained that the overall figures were good and crime figures falling - compared to the same period in the previous year - although some worrying trends had been noted.

"There were 23 assaults," he said, "including five that were inside homes - a worrying number of incidents of domestic violence," he said.

As well as being briefed by the officers, the Forum members were then able to have a guided tour of the Borough's sophisticated CCTV suite, where the live cameras that protect both Newtownabbey Borough Council's property and selected public places are monitored.

Alderman Janet Crilly, a long-standing DPP member who formerly chaired the body herself, said she looked forward to the most recently erected cameras coming on line – something that is anticipated to take place before the end of the month.

Janet, who organised the Forum's special visit to the CCTV suite said: "The new cameras - including those at Glengormley Park and Carnmoney Road – would greatly enhance public safety when they join the existing cameras that are already being monitored each evening and weekend by council staff – in close cooperation with the PSNI."

However, the emphasis on CCTV coverage in Newtownabbey is at odds with recent comments in Great Britain where a senior London-based police officer has claimed that closed circuit TV systems are of little use in fighting crime.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, who heads the Metropolitan Police's Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office, claimed a huge investment in CCTV in London had failed to cut crime, describing the system as an "utter fiasco".

While attending the Security Document World Conference in London earlier this week he said: "Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco - only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV."

See: Debate Rages On CCTV Effectiveness

(BMcC)