The small country town of about 7,000 people does have some fixed security camera outside its council chambers, art galleries and nightspots.

In his role as Shire Mayor of Maranoa Robert Loughan oversaw debate about whether CCTV was to be installed in the main street of Roma, a small country town of about 7,000 people.

“There was a discussion and they were going to go ahead with security cameras in the main street, but 18 months ago we amalgamated five councils into one and it never happened,” Cr Loughnan said.

“A lot of people thought it did go ahead and surprisingly it has lead to a significant decrease in vandalism in the main street.”

Cr Loughnan said Roma did have some fixed security cameras in public places although not in the main street.

There are four located around the council chambers, some covering art galleries and the sale yards and one focused on a busy nightspot and traffic intersection. Council paid for all cameras with the assistance of funding from the Queensland Government.

Cr Loughnan said it cost about $6,000 to set up cameras in each of the locations. Footage was not monitored and looped over every seven days. Police can only access the footage within that timeframe.

“It’s not bad actually. We put them in at the sale yards because there were a few disputes about numbers. There’s no debate now,” Cr Loughnan said.

“It’s a real deterrent.”