Anti-crime pod damaged a week after installation
Durham PoliceA purpose-built, anti-crime pod has been damaged just over a week after it was installed, police have confirmed.
The Safer Pod, put up in Seaham, County Durham, on 12 January, was fitted with 24-hour monitored CCTV, audio recording equipment, smoke detectors and thermal imaging cameras.
Comments on social media said it had been smashed and tipped over. Durham Police said "minor damage" was reported on the evening of 20 January but the pod was now "back up and running".
The force said the device had been placed on The Avenue to "aid prevention and detection of arson, antisocial behaviour and retail crime", adding the area had been the target of a number of suspicious fires in recent months.
The force said: "It is designed to provide a strong visual deterrent to potential criminals, to detect fires at the earliest opportunity and to gather extensive evidence related to any suspicious activity."
The pod was one of a number already installed across the county.
In Darlington, a trial deployment saw reported incidents of shoplifting fall from 21 to one and reported incidents of anti-social behaviour fall from 18 to zero.
