Sergeant Nic Shorten is urging the Calne Town Council to recruit more volunteers to man its CCTV system.

He said live monitoring of the cameras was essential and should be actively encouraged but it was the council's responsibility.

The council installed the hi-tech camera system in 2002 and to date it has captured 30 images, which have been used as evidence by the police.

"On a highly frequent basis, meaning every week, my officers attend Bank House to review tapes in order to obtain any available evidence relating to offences committed in the town centre.

To date we have not been required to make use of the video evidence in court but there have been a number of cases where the offender, when confronted with the fact their actions have been caught on camera, has entered a guilty plea," said Sergeant Shorten of Calne police station.

He said if the cameras were operated by volunteers at peak times, such as late on Friday and Saturday night, the operators could contact the police immediately and in many cases this would allow the police to arrest any offenders at the scene.