The Ely and Soham CCTV scheme was directly responsible for 63 arrests and 112 cautions or words of advice in its first year, it has been reported. Ely has already seen significant drops in crime and anti-social behaviour in the areas covered by CCTV. There has also been a slight drop in anti-social behaviour and crime in the urban area surrounding the city, suggesting that there has been no movement of crime to neighbouring areas.  Deputy Mayor Councillor Derek Crawley said: "We are pleased by the drop in crime and anti-social behaviour and glad that our confidence in the CCTV scheme has been vindicated. The city council looks forward to working with our partners in the coming years to improve the effectiveness of the system and help create a safer city". Although the figures for incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour in Soham showed a slight rise compared to the previous year, this has been attributed to the fact that the town's crime figures were already low.  A town spokesman said: "We had anticipated a rise in the number of reported incidents once the cameras were installed, as more would be seen and logged by the CCTV control room staff. Also, the public now have greater confidence that there will be additional evidence to support any report that they make. "Nevertheless, we will still be looking at how we can improve the performance of the system, and what other measures can be introduced to tackle crime and disorder in our community". The CCTV control room responded to 320 calls from the police and 10 requests to cover police officers in threatening situations. There were also 113 contacts made with members of the Shopwatch scheme and 17 responses to burglar alarms.  Ely Sector Inspector Richard Douce welcomed the initial evaluation figures and said that the CCTV system was another tool to assist his officers to reduce crime and disorder levels in the area. The system has 35 state-of-the-art cameras that are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.