A TOTAL of 285 arrests have been made across the county and 101 in south Cumbria as a direct result of new state-of-the-art CCTV cameras.

The £2.5m crime-fighting system was launched in July with 53 Big Brother cameras launched across Cumbria with 12 in Barrow. This was after a successful bid for cash from the government for £539,000.

South Cumbria Superintendent Rob O'Connor said that in just nine months the cameras have made a significant difference.

They had led to the arrest of drug dealers, shoplifters, sex offenders and violent criminals as well as helping find missing people.

He said: "Before these were installed my concern when we lost the previous ones was that it would impact on our ability to detect crime. So I was really pleased when the crime commissioner's officer installed this new system with local authorities. It is obviously state-of-the art. It's easy to view and easy to capture the evidence to utilise for court. 

"The cameras are monitored at police headquarters in Penrith. However, we can monitor the 12 Barrow town centre cameras from the police station. We have a dedicated team in Penrith at key times, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

"It helps get officer patrols to the right place at the right time and helps us trace offenders. It's also a very visible deterrent. Last summertime there was a fall out on Cavendish Street between two people. One male went up to Lorne Road and set a house on fire. We were able to use CCTV to track him on camera from the town centre to the address.

"The quality of the recordings is fantastic and clearly identifies the people and the clothing they are wearing. If there's reports of a shoplifter or someone who has gone missing we can scan the town centre to look for them. We have even captured drug dealers handing over packages in Barrow.

"Having these cameras for the last nine months has been of significant benefit in tackling crime."