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CCTV plan won't work alone: NSW opposition

Labor says the cameras would aid police crack down on crime.

Labor's promise to install $5 million in surveillance cameras in NSW crime hotspots has been ridiculed by the Liberals and Greens, who say cameras alone do not stamp out crime.

Three weeks before the 26 March election, Premier Kristina Keneally announced 300 new surveillance cameras would be set up in areas such as Kings Cross if Labor is returned to office.

"The $5 million CCTV fund will allow local councils to apply for 75 per cent of the capital cost of installing new CCTV cameras and systems," Keneally announced on Saturday.

Police minister, Michael Daley, said the cameras would help police crack down on alcohol-related assaults, graffiti, malicious damage, motor vehicle theft, break and enter offences, and domestic violence.

But the opposition maintained the cameras would only be useful if they were monitored by police via live feeds.

"Without that it's a bit like turning your tele on and going to bed at night time," opposition police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, said.

"And you wake up the next day and find out what happened.

"If you are some unwitting person, unwittingly walking into an area, where the CCTV cameras are there... and you get your jaw broken by someone, I don't want to know there is really good footage of the guy who broke my jaw.

"I want to know (that) if it was a bad area, why you didn't have cops there in the first place."

The Greens said Keneally's camera announcement indicated her government was still focused on law and order rather than on addressing the underlying causes of crime.

"Spending $5 million on 300 CCTV cameras is not a meaningful response to fixing the causes of crime," Greens MP David Shoebridge said in a statement.

"CCTV cameras are a feel-good measure but they are no panacea."

Shoebridge further expressed concerns the cameras would burden local councils with the task of monitoring, maintaining and upgrading them.

To break the cycle of crime, he says, the government should invest in programs aimed at helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said he would do that by allocating $20 million to go towards Police Citizens and Youth Clubs should he win the election.

The clubs were established 75 years ago, with the aim of enabling police to establish good relationships with young offenders, or those at risk of offending, through educational programs aimed at preventing crime.

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