Caught out if caught short in Calne (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Caught out if caught short in Calne

11:00am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Anne Moore

Police will post images of offenders on Facebook. Pictured, Sergeant Simon Wright

Police are cracking down on people urinating in the streets of Calne by publishing pictures of the culprits.

Officers decided to take action after a rise in the anti-social behaviour.

The town council’s CCTV team will provide images of the faces of culprits and these will be published on the Calne police Facebook site.

Those identified could receive a fixed penalty fine of £50, to deter them from repeating the offence.

PSCO Mark Cook said recently the CCTV team had seen up to four people urinating in the town centre on the same weekend; unpleasant for pedestrians and expensive for the town council to clean up.

He said: “This has been done as we have been advised by the Calne Town Council regarding the rise in persons, male and female, urinating in the town centre of Calne.

“Due to this, we are now taking the steps to use appropriate CCTV images of persons engaging in this sort of behaviour. “If we’re not able identify who has done it, they will continue.”

Richard Stigwood, proprietor of Centre News in the High Street, said he had to clean up after people urinating most weekends.

He said: “It’s been an ongoing problem over the years. It’s something that’s always happened, since the public conveniences were closed eight years ago.

“We have an alleyway down the side of the shop and most weekends I go out with a bucket of hot water and Domestos to swill it down.

“If they can get the pictures, it would be ideal, but where they do it, it’s dark and I’m not sure they would get a photo.”

Alice Bellamy, who runs a beauty salon at St Mary’s Courtyard, said: “As long as the way you report and name the person you think it is in a confidential way, then I think it makes total sense.

“They need a dedicated phone number, or people would have to private message. You don’t want people being named and shamed in public.”

The police have also suggested posting images of people involved in other forms of anti-social behaviour, or who may be witnesses to incidents in the town.

Wiltshire Council’s member for Calne North, Chuck Berry, said: “It’s an awkward suggestion, but anything that stops people from urinating would be a good thing, providing it’s not infringing the privacy of others.

“If they can determine when this sort of behaviour occurs, then the police should be out for those hours when it becomes an issue.”