Advanced Overwatch monitors the town centre CCTV systems for Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart. The systems are owned and managed by Safer Causeway, who have contracted Advanced Overwatch to operate and monitor them since 2022. We upgraded every camera and built a new, state-of-the-art town centre CCTV control room to watch over the three towns.
Public space CCTV is different from a shop or a yard camera. It watches busy town centres where residents, visitors and businesses go about their day, and it has to be operated to a higher standard because of it. That is the work Advanced Overwatch does across the north coast.
Who owns it, and who watches it
The town centre CCTV across Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart is owned and managed by Safer Causeway. Advanced Overwatch is their contracted operator. Since 2022 we have been responsible for monitoring the network, maintaining the cameras, and running the control room that the three towns are watched from.
The distinction matters. Safer Causeway holds and directs the scheme. Our job is to deliver it well: to keep every camera working, to watch the network with trained people, and to respond in line with the agreed procedures. That division of responsibility is what keeps a public space CCTV scheme both effective and accountable.
The camera upgrade and the new control room
When Advanced Overwatch took on the town centre network, we upgraded every camera across Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart and built a new, state-of-the-art town centre CCTV control room to monitor them from.
Modern cameras mean clearer images, better coverage of the areas that matter, and footage that is genuinely useful when it is needed. A purpose-built control room means the three towns are watched from one properly equipped place rather than a patchwork of older kit. For residents and businesses that adds up to a simple thing: a town centre system that works as it should, watched by people whose job is to watch it.
Watched by public-space, SIA-licensed operators
The town centre network is monitored by our public-space, SIA-licensed CCTV operators. They hold Security Industry Authority public space surveillance licences, the qualification the law expects of anyone paid to operate CCTV in a public place.
Operating public space CCTV carries real responsibilities. Cameras must be used proportionately, footage handled and retained properly, and privacy respected, all in line with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and ICO surveillance guidance. Our operators are trained and licensed for exactly this environment, so the scheme is run to the standard a town centre deserves.
Working with the Community Rescue Service
Some of the most important work the town centre CCTV does never makes the news. Our public-space, SIA-licensed CCTV operators work on a daily basis with the Community Rescue Service to assist with locating high-risk missing and vulnerable people using the CCTV network.
When someone is missing and at risk, minutes matter. A live network of well-placed cameras, watched by trained operators who can coordinate directly with search teams, gives those teams eyes across a town centre they would otherwise have to cover on foot. It is quiet, daily, genuinely important work, and it is one of the clearest reasons a well-run public space CCTV scheme is worth having.
A track record in public sector CCTV
The north coast town centre scheme is not the only public body Advanced Overwatch works for. We hold the public sector contract for CCTV monitoring, maintenance and installation for Mid Ulster District Council across the Mid Ulster region. Advanced Overwatch installs, maintains and supports the CCTV systems of public bodies including Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, Mid Ulster District Council, the NHS and more.
Public sector CCTV is held to a higher bar on accountability, data protection and reliability than almost any private installation. Doing it well, in more than one region, is the clearest proof that a security company can be trusted with the systems a community relies on.
Talk to the team
Advanced Overwatch is based in Coleraine and has installed, monitored and maintained security systems across Northern Ireland since 2017. We are SSAIB certified for CCTV, access control and intruder alarms, and certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001 and ISO 45001.
To talk to us about CCTV monitoring, maintenance or installation, call 028 7087 8077 or get in touch through our contact page.
