City Centre Initiative was selected to establish and maintain the City Centre Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) scheme within the city in 2000. Since that time, the scheme had gone from strength to strength. Statistics have shown that crime in the city has fallen by nine percent according to the PSNI District Command Unit.

CCTV has made, and continues to make, a positive contribution to the performance, use and behaviour of the city centre. There has been a steady and marked decline in negative and detrimental behaviour that in the past has blighted the city centre and we believe that the city is now a more safe and friendly place.

The purpose of the CCTV scheme is to create a safe and secure environment for all those who visit, live, work and do business in Derry-Londonderry city centre by:

• Reducing fear of crime and reassuring the public
• Projecting an image as a safe city
• Helping to prevent crime
• Deterring and detecting crime
• Helping to identify, apprehend and prosecute offenders
• Providing evidence of criminal and civil action in the courts
• Helping to maintain pubic order
• Assisting in the management and policing of large-scale events
• Providing assistance to emergency services
• Assisting in improving the town-centre environment

CCTV provides residents of the city with peace of mind that they are safe and not isolated. Areas which in the past were seen to be “troubled areas” have noticed a marked and significant decrease in the amount of anti-social behaviour that once defined those areas, thus enabling progression and new life to be injected into these communities.