NOWRA anti-CCTV protester Adam Bonner has brought his campaign to the streets of Ulladulla.
Mr Bonner was collecting signatures for his anti-CCTV petition outside Ulladulla Post Office last Thursday morning.
He believes Shoalhaven City Council's push to have security cameras installed in the Nowra Central Business District is just the beginning and that East Nowra, Bomaderry and Ulladulla could soon follow.
As reported in last week's edition of the Times, a major debate has erupted over council's plans to install 18 security cameras in the Nowra CBD in a bid to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.
It has received $150,000 in funding under the National Community Crime Prevention Program to install the cameras, which will operate on a 24 hour basis with footage transmitted to recording equipment at Nowra Police Station.
Mr Bonner has described the installation of the cameras as an invasion of privacy and has taken the matter to the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal.
He believes council should be looking at other ways of tackling crime and anti-social behaviour without "trampling on people's privacy".
Mr Bonner said overseas studies had indicated that security cameras were ineffective when it came to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.
He said the cameras targeted opportunistic crimes and the people responsible for those sorts of crimes didn't respond to surveillance.
Mr Bonner said council had previously employed security guards to patrol the Nowra CBD and he couldn't understand why it had decided to "replace something effective with something ineffective".
He also raised concerns about on-going costs.
In Ipswich, for example, where there are 185 cameras, Mr Bonner said the cost to ratepayers was $800,000 a year. In Toowoomba (43 cameras) it is $150,000 a year.
He said he had questioned Shoalhaven City Council about the on-going cost of the cameras locally but had yet to receive a response.
"Either they haven't done the work or they've got it and they're embarrassed," he said last week.
Mr Bonner said he didn't have a problem with business people using surveillance cameras in their own private space but it was a different matter in public areas where people were simply "minding their own business".
He believes council's decision to install the cameras is being driven by ideology over commonsense given there has been no thorough assessment of their effectiveness or any cost-benefit analysis.
Those people who have spoken out in favour of the cameras include Member for Gilmore Joanna Gash and deputy mayor Gareth Ward, who has launched his own petition in favour of the security cameras.
Mrs Gash said people didn't have to worry about the cameras as long as they were doing the right thing and obeying the law.
She said the cameras were a tool for catching criminals and bringing them to justice but would also help people feel safer as they move around town.
Cr Ward said the cameras were part of a 'tapestry of measures' being used to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour in the Nowra CBD and said those people not doing anything wrong would have nothing to hide.
Mr Bonner told the Times last week that he would be happy to take part in a public debate on the CCTV issue.
A council spokesperson told the Times last week that council's legal services manager had reviewed a number of issues relating to the installation of security cameras and that the review had been referred to the NSW Privacy Commissioner.
He said all 18 security cameras had now been installed in the Nowra CBD but none of them would be turned on pending the findings of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal and the NSW Privacy Commissioner.
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