If you ever get the feeling you're being watched, you might be right.
With more than 900 CCTV cameras operating in the cities of Tauranga and Rotorua, Taupō, and the Bay of Plenty State Highway network, the Tauranga Transport Operations Centre - TTOC - is watching, ready to keep our communities safe.
The centre, affectionately known as TTOC, is run by Tauranga City Council and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has the dual function of monitoring our roads, as well as ensuring community safety in public places.
TTOC staff are trained to monitor unsafe driving behaviour on our roads, find lost cars and lost people; detect, and respond to motor vehicle accidents; gather evidence of crimes, enforce parking restrictions; reduce congestion on our roads; allow safe viewing of construction activities; monitor flooding, fires, and storm activity; locate marine and road hazards, and sometimes, save lives.
'Our actions have prevented people from self-harm, from causing accidents due to reckless driving and from getting into trouble on the water,” says Tauranga Transport Operations Centre Team Leader Richard Eaton.
Richard has worked at TTOC since 2013 when the centre had just 26 analogue cameras and recorded footage on video tape. Fast forward to today – and there are 900 crystal-clear digital cameras in use which come complete with their own wipers to clean their lens.
As well as cameras trained on city streets and council-owned facilities such as public toilets and sports fields, there are 85 sets of traffic lights to monitor and a network of 17,000 streetlights.
The large increase in the number of cameras reflects the population growth of Tauranga, as well as a significant increase in unsafe driving behaviour in the city.
While there are no red light or fixed speed cameras in Tauranga, TTOC can report unsafe driver behaviour to the Police for follow-up and will be stepping up its reporting going forward after securing a dedicated staff member for this purpose.
And if you're driving in a bus lane, you can expect to receive a ticket from Council.
'We caught 57 people driving in the bus lane on Hewlett's Road over a four-hour period recently. If we want public transport to move effectively around the city, we can't have people driving in bus lanes,” says Richard.
TTOC also works closely with Council's parking team to monitor illegal parking, particularly around schools where it becomes a real safety issue.
Video footage is stored for 30 days before being deleted. Access to footage is strictly controlled and only released to the NZ Police.
While some of the footage the 11-strong team must watch is unpleasant, there are lighter moments, such as people calling Council asking for help when they forget where they parked their car while out shopping.
The team is also joined in the operations centre by Police and Council event staff during major events such as New Year's Eve celebrations and festivals such as One Love so there are many hands on deck to make sure people are enjoying themselves safely.
Trying to watch 900 cameras all at once is an impossible task of course, so daytime monitoring of the cameras is quite different to night-time monitoring.
'During the day we're looking for traffic movement. If it's not moving, there's a problem somewhere. At night, it's the opposite. It should be pretty quiet, with limited movement,
says Richard.
Some cameras are activated by movement – known as line crossing or intrusion detection – so the operators are alerted to any suspicious activity.
TTOC Operations Lead Dave Warner has been on the job for over 20 years and knows what to look out for.
'A lot of it is about reading body language. If a group of people are all looking in one direction, then we can change the camera angle to see what they're looking at.”
Dave describes TTOC as an 'exciting” place to work and says he gets a lot of satisfaction out of helping keep his community safe.
'When we're involved in a major Police pursuit, directing the Police where they need to go, and they make an arrest, everyone is pumped.
'But our work is really about community safety. It's certainly a lot safer on our city streets with the cameras out there than it used to be.”
If you ever get the feeling you're being watched, you might be right.
With more than 900 CCTV cameras operating in the cities of Tauranga and Rotorua, Taupō, and the Bay of Plenty State Highway network, the Tauranga Transport Operations Centre - TTOC - is watching, ready to keep our communities safe.
The centre, affectionately known as TTOC, is run by Tauranga City Council and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has the dual function of monitoring our roads, as well as ensuring community safety in public places.
TTOC staff are trained to monitor unsafe driving behaviour on our roads, find lost cars and lost people; detect, and respond to motor vehicle accidents; gather evidence of crimes, enforce parking restrictions; reduce congestion on our roads; allow safe viewing of construction activities; monitor flooding, fires, and storm activity; locate marine and road hazards, and sometimes, save lives.
'Our actions have prevented people from self-harm, from causing accidents due to reckless driving and from getting into trouble on the water,” says Tauranga Transport Operations Centre Team Leader Richard Eaton.
Richard has worked at TTOC since 2013 when the centre had just 26 analogue cameras and recorded footage on video tape. Fast forward to today – and there are 900 crystal-clear digital cameras in use which come complete with their own wipers to clean their lens.
As well as cameras trained on city streets and council-owned facilities such as public toilets and sports fields, there are 85 sets of traffic lights to monitor and a network of 17,000 streetlights.
The large increase in the number of cameras reflects the population growth of Tauranga, as well as a significant increase in unsafe driving behaviour in the city.
While there are no red light or fixed speed cameras in Tauranga, TTOC can report unsafe driver behaviour to the Police for follow-up and will be stepping up its reporting going forward after securing a dedicated staff member for this purpose.
And if you're driving in a bus lane, you can expect to receive a ticket from Council.
'We caught 57 people driving in the bus lane on Hewlett's Road over a four-hour period recently. If we want public transport to move effectively around the city, we can't have people driving in bus lanes,” says Richard.
TTOC also works closely with Council's parking team to monitor illegal parking, particularly around schools where it becomes a real safety issue.
Video footage is stored for 30 days before being deleted. Access to footage is strictly controlled and only released to the NZ Police.
While some of the footage the 11-strong team must watch is unpleasant, there are lighter moments, such as people calling Council asking for help when they forget where they parked their car while out shopping.
The team is also joined in the operations centre by Police and Council event staff during major events such as New Year's Eve celebrations and festivals such as One Love so there are many hands on deck to make sure people are enjoying themselves safely.
Trying to watch 900 cameras all at once is an impossible task of course, so daytime monitoring of the cameras is quite different to night-time monitoring.
'During the day we're looking for traffic movement. If it's not moving, there's a problem somewhere. At night, it's the opposite. It should be pretty quiet, with limited movement,
says Richard.
Some cameras are activated by movement – known as line crossing or intrusion detection – so the operators are alerted to any suspicious activity.
TTOC Operations Lead Dave Warner has been on the job for over 20 years and knows what to look out for.
'A lot of it is about reading body language. If a group of people are all looking in one direction, then we can change the camera angle to see what they're looking at.”
Dave describes TTOC as an 'exciting” place to work and says he gets a lot of satisfaction out of helping keep his community safe.
'When we're involved in a major Police pursuit, directing the Police where they need to go, and they make an arrest, everyone is pumped.
'But our work is really about community safety. It's certainly a lot safer on our city streets with the cameras out there than it used to be.”
2 comments
Hmmmm
Posted on 08-01-2023 21:58 | By Yadick
Big brother is watching . . . But who cares. It keeps everyone safe. If you've done nothing wrong then you have nothing to worry about.
@Yadick
Posted on 11-01-2023 11:49 | By morepork
What if you have done nothing wrong but somebody wants to get you? History is full of innocent people being set up by systems that were supposed to be harmless to the "innocent". "If we want public transport to move effectively around the city, we can’t have people driving in bus lanes." If there is no bus there it does no harm; but it is technically illegal. If we had more sensible buses there would be more road for everybody. "Access to footage is strictly controlled and only released to the NZ Police." (or to my cuzzie or Bert's friend, Trevor if you buy him a beer...) Seriously, there is always a possibility of leakage even though the staff may be of high integrity. On balance, this CCTV probably does more good than harm and is a factor in modern living, but don't get smug about it.
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