Case Studies
Project Background
Kent Police’s Maidstone Community Safety Unit is responsible for protecting the public and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour across the district. Inspector Steve Kent leads local activity through specialist teams working across the town centre, focusing on public safety, safeguarding and improving community confidence.
While Maidstone already had CCTV coverage in parts of the town centre, gaps remained in key hotspot areas. These unmonitored spaces often became regular gathering points for offenders, creating issues that impacted both community safety and the public perception of policing.
To address these challenges, Kent Police introduced WCCTV’s solar trailer as a flexible way to bring overt video surveillance to areas where fixed cameras were not available.
The Challenge
Although Maidstone has an established CCTV network, certain areas had no coverage at all. These locations quickly became attractive to individuals committing anti-social behaviour or other offences, particularly during evenings and weekends.
Inspector Kent identified that these CCTV blind spots created two major problems:
- Limited ability to deter crime in known hotspots
- Reduced opportunity to gather clear evidence when incidents occurred
The priority was not only prevention, but reassurance. Kent Police needed to show the local community that action was being taken in the areas that felt unsafe, without relying solely on deploying officers into the same locations repeatedly.
The Solution
Kent Police deployed a WCCTV solar trailer to fill these coverage gaps and support proactive policing across Maidstone. The unit provided a highly visible deterrent, with the flexibility to move quickly between locations as priorities changed.
The trailer enabled police to target multiple problem areas, including:
- A well-known park that had become a regular location for alcohol-related anti-social behaviour
- An area outside a nightclub where weekend violence had previously occurred
- A road stretch affected by street racing, fireworks and dangerous driving
Inspector Kent described the system as a way to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour more effectively by using technology to support both deterrence and evidence capture. The system also supported investigations by allowing officers to review live and recorded footage through a user-friendly platform.
Kent Police used the Stellifii CCTV HD camera paired with an ANPR camera, allowing coverage in opposite directions. This setup helped provide visibility across wider areas and supported incidents involving vehicles, where identifying activity and gathering intelligence was key.
The police team also highlighted the quality of WCCTV’s support service, with fast response times whenever assistance was needed and issues resolved quickly, even outside normal working hours.
The Result
The deployments delivered visible community reassurance, reduced anti-social behaviour in targeted areas and helped Kent Police gather stronger intelligence to support enforcement activity.
In the park deployment, the impact was immediate. The presence of the trailer discouraged those responsible for the disruption and residents began returning to use the space again. Inspector Kent reported that people were pleased to see action being taken, with parents commenting that they felt more confident walking through the area with their children.
Outside the nightclub, the trailer was deployed across weekends where fights had previously occurred. During the time the unit was in place, there were no further incidents of violence outside the venue, helping reduce risk to the public and easing pressure on frontline resources.
In response to street racing complaints, the trailer captured footage of around 50 to 60 vehicles in one night, giving Kent Police the intelligence needed to identify offenders and support prosecution activity.
Inspector Steve Kent commented:
“We need to ensure that we are offering the community the best safeguarding that we can. WCCTV has high quality equipment that can deliver to the police force. It’s about improving public confidence, deterring people from committing crime or anti-social behaviour, but also if they do continue, we can look to prosecute and bring them to justice.”
