[suziequeue]

Following on from zeeteecee's thread in the Techniques and Skills section I was thinking about CCTV.

In the spiring we thought about it for keeping an eye on our ewes but now I am beginning to think more generally - especially as we are having quite alot of work done to the property now (in preparation for n=knocking the whole thing own and rebuilding next year).

A neighbour had CCTV and discovered that the other neighbour was nicking stuff (sheep lick etc) but the police said it was inadmissible because she hadn't put signs up saying CCTV was in use!!!!!

What are people's experiences?

I understand that you can get some quite good, cheap ones now that link into your home computer network.

[robert waddell]

covert CCTV is i believe inadmissible      but full on visable cameras is (there is a difference betwean Scotland and england law)
your neighbour now knows he has a tea leaf as a neighbour
yes the cheap ones are good but the realy good ones are cheaper now as well the ones that tesco/asda etc are brilliant they can read the numbers on credit cards from the other end of the store
you can get some fancy apps that warn you of intruders the other side of the world and you can view them on your phone or lap top

[waterhouse]

I'm certain that the situation in England is that on private property no sign is needed any longer.  We have a fairly good relationship with the Old Bill here who've been round a couple of times to see what's on our DVR when the neighbours have been done.  They have commented that most CCTV is unusable as evidence because the quality is poor.

We have 8 cameras and could use 12 just to cover the house (which has four entrances) and where we park equipment.  The DVR is set up only to record motion (and there are lot of levels of sensitivity and masks for each camera) to extend the amount that can be recorded - about 2 weeks in our case.

The most important camera is the one that can be seen from the road gate looking straight at you.  It was £150 but the quality is good enough to read number plates at night.

There are two components to quality.  Firstly a 540 line camera or better can deliver a good image to the screen.  But the expensive bit is the DVR which has to be able to record what it's receiving at the same quality.  Basically if it can't record 20fps with lots of pixels on each channel then a good camera is irrelevant.  If anyone is really interested I can go into more detail but much of the CCTV stuff on eBay is short on spec., so cheap for a reason.

Our neighbours last got done (the gate camera recorded it at 100m) only 30mins after the plastic plod cycled past.  It took 60 seconds to strip the contents of their shed into a white van.  So the PCSO wasn't much use...

I look at the CCTV as mostly deterrent.  Pretty much everyone around here has been done except us, touch wood.

[Fruit of gods]

Ebay have got some colour PIR camera's about the size of a match box, theyve got microphones and come with 15m of cable and cost about 30-40 pounds for two and the controller.
We have just connected to an old video recorder on long play stand bye, whenever the infa red is broken, the video records.
The other thing is that if you split the scart lead with a double connector and connect to your TV, it will auto switch to the camera when the beams broken, even when the TV on stand bye.

[waterhouse]

if nothing else you should get some splendid wildlife pictures.  I was unaware just how many foxes patrol our place until I started checking the recordings

[bazzais]

All this talk of cctv makes me want to go and get the keys out my car, tractor, digger, shed etc etc

The thing about CCTV - do you really need it? Are you using it a preventative measure or are trying to use it as a cure?

There isnt a preventative measure in existence that will stop a proper crook.

(probably doing a bit of a Jeremy Clarkson in this post and have my digger direct debited from my yard tonight).

Baz

[waterhouse]

It's all a matter of local circumstances. 

I live five miles from Luton airport in the urban fringe next to a main road.  The nice country lane out the back gets a car torched roughly weekly.  Pickups and tippers full of garden waste dump in any convenient gateway and a significant proportion of Joe Public round here is light fingered.  We have above average and rising crime figures.  And that's without considering Luton's most famous export - terrorists.

One night eight of our neighbours lost their ride-on mowers, and other toys from their garden sheds.  Our next door neighbour has had his shed emptied three times in two years.  A house 400m away had all their Xmas presents and family silver stolen from the dining room while they were having drinks in the lounge.  A family a mile away were held at gunpoint while their house was ransacked.  Six ponies vanished from a field nearby (but turned up five miles away on common land a week later). 

So its not paranoid to have electric gates and CCTV so no-one drives in for a look round to recce the scene when we're out.  We've had nothing nicked in seven years and we keep our doors locked (double Banhams) when we're in and the vehicle keys concealed. And we pay a lot for insurance.

Now I'm aware that I'm just moving the problem around the corner but there is little I can do about that.  I have watched people walk down the drive eyeballing the security and finding a spurious excuse for the visit.  But they don't come back because we've made it not worth the effort.

Despite all the above my land makes me happy and relaxes me so I can live with the crap and don't want to move away.  But all you good people who don't worry about strangers might like to consider your very good fortune.

 

[tizaala]

The other worthwhile deterrant is of course alarm guns set off by trip wires, anyone creeping about in the night does not want a loud bang next to them, the pile of crap they deposit can be used for DNA recognition.

[Fruit of gods]

With My mum being an old school gamekeeper
Her security was getting an old tractor drag and tipping it spike side up and leaving in a place where, as kids, we were nbanned from and as a thief, would prob be one of the ways you would come in or go out.
She also used to leave a lot of sharp stakes at ball height

But by far the best deterrent are, as said above, the air mines with trip wires.
Basically its just a blank cartridge with a fire pin and trip wire
These were customised so they would have rock salt and dried peas in the cartridges in stead of blanks.
They were pointed the opposite way round and instead of blowing down to the floor, blow straight up between your legs.
There were lots of times they went off but never found anybody there!!
Ended up stopping anything getting nicked from the farm for years and years.
But also made you very cagey about where you were allowed to go and where not.....

[SallyintNorth]

With My mum being an old school gamekeeper
Her security was getting an old tractor drag and tipping it spike side up and leaving in a place where, as kids, we were nbanned from and as a thief, would prob be one of the ways you would come in or go out.
She also used to leave a lot of sharp stakes at ball height

Some friends have an industrial unit in the Midlands.  The unit backed onto some railway tracks and kids were jumping onto the roof and getting in through the skylights.  The unit was getting burgled every single Bank Holiday and the Police seemed unable to do anything about it.  So my friends' employees rolled up some barbed wire and stuffed it into the skylight shafts.  Their insurance company told them they had to remove it, as if a burglar got in and was wounded, s/he would successfully sue them for causing injury, even though the burglar would be trespassing at the time.

The world has gone stark staring bonkers and I no longer understand it. 

[waterhouse]

That's because they didn't put up warning signs, silly.  Put up placards everywhere and use razor wire...

[Sandy]

I toy with the idea of CCTV and if I were a bit more techy I would put one in our porch as we have had guests smuggle people in (one a muderess) THen again, what I don't know and cannot do anything about..I don't stress about!!! There are 2 cameras in front of this house, they are not always working but if anything major kicked off they would be able to see this house on them!!!

[ambriel]

I've got a couple of webcams set up in the garden that let me keep an eye on the animals when I'm across the harbour in my office. There's a link to one of them on our website.

You don't need a shotgun license to buy blank shotgun cartidges (bizarrly) but I'd hesitate from modifying them or adding rock salt or anything. The noise alone will be enough that any perp will shat themselves and there's always the risk of an innocent person setting one off.