Although the perpetrator is not always clearly visible in the footage, surveillance enables a rapid response. This was the case, among others, with the recent arson attacks on rubbish bins and the damage to a car on Zgorzelecka Street.
– Over the past three months, surveillance helped us catch an arsonist and vandals who, while drunk, damaged rubbish bins and a car – says police spokesperson Adriana Szajwaj.
They Walked Around Drunk and Kicked Things
On a March night, three intoxicated teenagers were walking along Prusa and Zgorzelecka Streets. The young men kicked rubbish bins. When that was not enough for them, two began damaging a car parked on the street. The camera recorded one of the men jumping onto the car’s bonnet. Then, taking turns kicking it with his companion, he broke the car window.
After receiving information from the Municipal Police, officers detained the vandals not far from the scene. The breathalyser showed that the men had between 1 and 1.5 per mille of alcohol in their systems. They will face court for their actions. Damaging property is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Arsonist Who Reported His Own Fires
The young man first set fire to a trailer on Staroszkolna Street (11 April) and immediately rang the intercom of a woman living in a nearby block of flats to ask her to call the fire brigade. The sleepy woman who answered the intercom later told our journalist that the boy knew too many details about the arson, which made her suspicious. – But it only occurred to me in the morning – the woman recounted. – The intercom rang in the middle of the night. The first thing I did was call the fire brigade. It never crossed my mind that I had spoken to the arsonist.
The boy presented himself to the police as a witness to the incident. Several days later, he started setting fires again. This time, he targeted rubbish bins. First, police received information that a bin was on fire on one of the streets in the city centre. The report turned out to be false, but elsewhere officers found five containers that had been set on fire. The perpetrator was recorded by surveillance cameras.
– Very little can be seen in the film, but we checked a person whom we associated with the latest trailer fire on Staroszkolna – says Szajwaj. – We questioned the boy again, and it turned out that it was him.
Police proved that the 19-year-old had set fire to the rubbish containers and damaged the camping trailer. He faces up to five years in prison. The perpetrator claimed that he had been drunk at the time and could not explain why he had set the fires.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Surveillance
As we have written before, the cameras were installed based on a map of dangerous points in the city prepared by the police. They operate around the clock, seven days a week. – Thanks to information from the Municipal Police, the police can intervene more quickly and often prevent more extensive damage – the police spokesperson praises the surveillance system.
Surveillance not only helps catch vandals, but also perpetrators of assaults and thefts. It also happens that cameras record fights—planned brawls—between middle-school students.
The disadvantage of city surveillance is the low quality of the footage and malfunctioning cameras. Often, even when an incident has been recorded, it is impossible to identify the perpetrator. And if the police are not alerted immediately, surveillance is of little use.
Residents of Bolesławiec complain that cameras are used to catch people drinking alcohol in public places. Residents sometimes consider these interventions unnecessary because they often involve peaceful citizens. This most frequently affects young men whose only “crime” is drinking beer. – I had an experience like that with the Municipal Police – Artur recounts. – My friend and I were sitting in a small square drinking beer. We went outside to talk because his little son was asleep, and he and his wife live in a studio flat. The officers drove over to us. The first thing they said was that we were unlucky because we were drinking under a camera. It ended with a fine.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)