Technology which would allow Gardai to identify the registration numbers of cars suspected to be involved in incidents in Mullingar has been put on the long finger due to a lack of funding, it emerged last week.
Speaking to the Mullingar Joint Policing Committee, Superintendent John Gantley said that while the expansion of the current CCTV system would undoubtedly prove beneficial, the funding is simply not there at present.
“The system has been a huge benefit to us in our investigations, but there are things it doesn’t capture. There were updates due but they are on the long finger, for example ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Recognition - to pick up suspect cars. This is updated daily nationally.”
Supt Gantley added that Gardai don’t have the resources at present to look at expanding the town’s CCTV system.
“We haven’t the resources but I’m sure we can look at extending it. We would have to look at it strategically and put together a case for it, to pick particular areas and parks. Obviously we had trouble in a certain estate recently and CCTV would have been useful.”
However when Cllr Dollard enquired as to the estimated cost for future cameras, Supt Gantley pointed out that this would not be the responsibility of Gardai; “We wouldn’t do the cost analysis; we can only propose what should be in place, and the cost would come from central funds,” he explained.
