Ted Melton outside the Levin Police Station, photographed by Jacob Brookie using a 1962 Yashica Minister II camera.
Ted Melton outside the Levin Police Station, photographed by Jacob Brookie using a 1962 Yashica Minister II camera.
Across Foxton are volunteers from every walk of life helping the community in almost every way you can think of. In this occasional series of photo-articles, MAVtech Museum’s photographer Jacob Brookie is using vintage cameras from the museum’s collection to show you a day in the life of our town’s volunteers.
Walking into the Levin Police Station seems a strange way to begin an article about Foxton’s volunteers. But inside the station a group of volunteers help keep Foxton Beach safe, as well as looking after Levin, Waitarere and Himatangi Beach, with more of Horowhenua to come soon.
For a closer look, MAVtech’s cameras visited the control room of the Horowhenua Community Camera Trust, which has been keeping a watchful eye over the district since 2003.
The trust and its partners own and operate a network of safety cameras which prevent and solve crime by providing high-quality footage for the police. There are different types of cameras in the trust’s network – some are fixed in position and others pivot. Many can read the number plates of vehicles passing by and all of them provide extremely high-quality images. The footage is so detailed that we did not photograph any of the monitors to ensure the privacy of passers-by.
Denis (left) and Ted in the Levin Police Station's camera room, photographed by Jacob Brookie using a vintage 1966 Marshal Press camera.
Ted Melton is the chairman of the trust and has worked alongside the police for much of his career. As well as leading the trust and helping to improve services, he spends a lot of time sharing the work of the trust and making sure the public know how the cameras are used. In charge of the control room is Denis, who has been volunteering for the past five years. “An important part of being an operator is having computer skills” he explains.
“Footage of crime is often used as evidence, so you need to know how to store it.”
Every member of the Horowhenua Community Camera Trust is a volunteer – and the camera operators are requested by police to search their footage for recordings of incidents which happened hours or days before. But crime is now less common thanks to the camera network – in Himatangi Beach, identifiable crime dropped substantially after they were installed.
The cameras are only preemptively monitored when a major incident is expected. During Levin’s street racer disorder this year a volunteer was on duty and provided real-time updates. Not only did this aid the immediate response, but it helped police to impound involved vehicles and issue infringement notices in the days that followed.
A pair of safety cameras at the Foxton Beach Surf Lifesaving Club photographed by Jacob Brookie using a vintage 1962 Yashica Minister II camera.
After checking in at the control room, Ted visited Coast Access Radio’s Levin Mall studio for an interview about trust’s new coverage strategy. As well as planning to establish cameras in Foxton, Shannon and elsewhere, the trust wants to form partnerships with other safety groups to work out gaps in their services and avoid overlapping.
Ted also acknowledges the trust’s sponsors, including the Horowhenua District Council and Electra. Aside from funding needed to increase safety-camera coverage, existing cameras need to be maintained and cleaned – with some zoom and pivoting cameras needing many adjustments each year.
Oliver from Coast Access Radio interviews Ted at the Levin Mall Studio, photographed by Jacob Brookie using a 1962 Yashica Minister II camera.
Ted was also keen to talk about the strict privacy rules the trust follows. The trust’s camera network is operated by police-vetted volunteers who undergo a suitability assessment and three months’ training. Footage is only supplied to the police and is automatically deleted within 40 days if not required for an investigation.
“We encourage local groups who want to set up safety cameras to work with us because if privacy issues are not sorted, the police cannot use any footage.”
Endowment funding granted by the Horowhenua District Council with the support of the Te Awahou Foxton Community Board and the Foxton Beach Progressive Association enabled the trust to expand its camera network to Foxton Beach in 2020. The five camera locations help police respond to anti-social driving, and one car thief provided evidence for their own prosecution after breaking into a car parked under a camera.
Volunteers around the country help police keep their communities safe, but few have as many ‘eyes’ as the Horowhenua Community Camera Trust. Anyone interested in finding out more, or who wants to ask about volunteering for one of several important roles, can drop in and talk to the team at the front desk of the Levin Police Station.
The 1962 Yashica Minister II Camera used by Jacob Brookie to take some of the photos in this article.
Two vintage cameras were used to take the photos for this article. A 1962 Yashica Minister II and a 1966 Marshal Press camera. For a time, Yashica was one of Japan’s most popular camera brands, and affordable advanced cameras like the Minister were a big part of its success. The ‘bug-eye’ rectangle on the front of the camera is a light meter to help the photographer decide which settings to use.
To see more photos taken with vintage cameras visit www.mavtech.org.nz.
