A £15,000 CCTV system which will target shoplifters in Swadlincote town centre will be installed this month.
The initiative has been put forward to combat a massive increase in the crime in the last 12 months.
Proposals were approved in November to replace the town's old CCTV network with a new one.
The town's seven existing cameras were installed in 2010 at a cost of £43,000 but have needed an increasing amount of repairs over the last 18 months.
Now South Derbyshire District Council is to replace the old cameras with 11 new static CCTV ones, during this month. The cost of the new scheme, including installation and training for operators, will be approximately £15,000.
The plan is to replace the existing seven cameras with 11 new ones based at the same locations.
The council’s housing and community services committee heard that the need for CCTV in the town was evident as there were over twice as many crimes (424) reported in the town centre in the year to September as there were in any other area of South Derbyshire.
Councillors were told there had also been an increase of crime in the Swadlincote centre ward of 17.1 per cent during the year, much of which was due to shoplifting.
The current positions of the cameras are:
• Swadlincote Library
• Post Office.
• West Street
• Dean and Smedley
• William Hill
• Civic Way
• Rink Passage
Sergeant Graham Summers, the South Derbyshire Safer Neighbourhood Police sergeant, backed the move to replace the cameras. He previously said in a report that CCTV enables the police to prove who the perpetrators are, to what extent anti-social behaviour has occurred and which shoplifters are moving around the town and when.
He added that quality of evidence from witnesses (who often do not see themselves as such) can be "shaky" and as a consequence, without CCTV, police may miss the opportunity to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and bring offenders to justice.
