A look behind the scenes at the CCTV control room which covers South Holland, Boston Borough, East Lindsey and Sleaford

At the end of a long, winding corridor which stretches through the ground floor of Boston Borough Council’s Municipal Buildings sits the CCTV control room. The eye in the sky stretching across four districts.

Regularly-updating street views of towns in South Holland, Boston Borough, East Lindsey and areas of Sleaford in North Kesteven can be seen across 16 monitors, dutifully operated by members of staff whose job it is to hawkishly look out for any extraordinary occurrences on the streets of South and East Lincolnshire.

At first glance, the back wall looks something like the HQ in sci-fi movie Minority Report. But while nobody on the county’s streets will be apprehended for dystopian Precrime, the cameras can help alert the authorities any potential troubles that may be ahead.

“If we’re looking around the area and see somebody who’s up to no good, shoplifting or something like that, we can watch them,” explained CCTV manager Andrew Haw, who has 19 years of experience in the control room where he began as a camera operator in 2003.

“If they’re going about their normal business we’ll leave them alone, but if they look like they’re up to something we’ll keep watching them.”

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Over the past two decades Andrew and his team have witness a number of changes to the job, including the additions of those patches outside of Boston and a vast improvement in the clarity of pictures. Indeed, without zooming in the company name across the back of a worker’s high-vis jacket could comfortably be read from a monitor no larger than the TV in your living room.

But despite the improvements in technology, and a larger area to cover, the day-to-day role remains the same.

“The cameras can be used to spot something, and be useful for police gathering evidence, but that’s not all they’re used for,” Andrew continued.

“They can play an important role in helping to find missing people and helping vulnerable people.

“If someone’s had a bit to drink and thinks they’ll bed down in a hedge to get some sleep it won’t be a problem for them in the summer. But in winter it can be dangerous, so we have to get help to them.”

As we watched shoppers pass well-known local sights from Skegness seafront to Crowland’s Trinity Bridge, it would have been easy enough to spot a major incident unfolding in the sparsely-populated Friday afternoon streets.

But not all shifts are like this, and the job can change when crowds arrive in their thousands for Boston’s Christmas Festival or Spalding’s Flower Parade.

“Most people are there for a good time and are behaving normally, we look for things that stick out,” Andrew added.

“We don’t look at each one of the 1,000 people or so in each screen, we look for something that looks different.”

Police can also arrange to have an officer in the control room watching the cameras when there’s a big event planned, such as the recent protests in Skegness, while the scenes depicted on two larger monitors to the right of the control room are also beamed directly to HQ in Nettleham.

Of course, with cameras able to trace your moves as you go about your day-to-day tasks – and officers sometimes in control rooms – the councils receive their fair share of backlash from the public who fear Big Brother is watching them.

But Andrew is adamant these cameras are not there to pry, but in fact a deterrent to criminals which boosts public safety.

“We have to find that balance of not being invasive but also being visible and ensuring people feel safe,” he said.

“Most people are going about their normal business. And if they are doing, then we don’t have a reason to watch them.”

Adding an extra level of privacy, police officers – who regularly rely on the cameras as evidence when building cases – are only allowed to access footage with a relevant incident number, which means that if the public don’t report incidents then there’s little chance of the wheels of justice being put into motion.

“We tell people ‘report it, report it’. People say things like ‘nothing happens’ and nobody does anything with it’,” Andrew continued.

“But that’s not the case. Reporting means there’s more chance any incident can be looked at.”

The team of 16 operators, who either work in pairs or alone, believe it tends to take six month in the job for spotting potential trouble to become a sixth sense.

“You get a sense of achievement every time you can help somebody,” said one operator, who has been scouring the cameras for the past 25 years.

“I’m from Boston and thought I knew Boston. But I didn’t until I saw it through the cameras. There are a lot of small alleys and areas you don’t go down that other people do. I look at Boston in a different way now.

“You feel as protective of all the areas as you do your own home town, but you do have to make sure you know the areas.

“For example there’s a Red Lion Street in Boston and Spalding. So if we get a call we have to make sure we’re looking at the right place.”

There are moments of light relief in a serious job; the CCTV cast their votes on which town had the best Christmas tree this year, yet nobody seems to know how the control room mascot – a plastic chicken – found its way onto the wall.

News that Boston was voted to have the best tree was questioned by South Holland District Council leader Nick Worth, who had invited LincsOnline to join him on his visit earlier this month.

“It’s a huge comfort knowing how well monitored the area is,” said Coun Worth, who was also quick to point out how clean his district looked from the air.

“I last came a few years ago and the quality of the images is far better. We had a our new cameras in about a year ago and you can see the vast difference.

“I’m really impressed. It’s a really good investment. If more people saw this they would realise how safe they should feel.”

The bad news for those not willing to play by the rules is that with Boston next on the list for an upgrade, by this time next year almost 400 of these state-of-the-art cameras will be monitoring the area.

Of course, there are ways you could try not to get caught on these candid cameras.

“People think hoodies can help,” Andrew added. “But things like that often just draw attention.

“We hear people say there aren’t any police on the streets anymore. But often that officer could be 100 yards from you in the next street and you just don’t see them. But we do.”

What do you think? Do our CCTV cameras do a good job? Post your thoughts in the comments below.