A CCTV scheme with minimal running costs is being looked into by Okehampton Town Council.
With the aid of a computer and mobile phone a check of what is happening in an area covered by a CCTV camera can be made by making a simple phone call.
The cameras in question could save the council £45,000 each year, members were told at a meeting on Monday.
The system has been suggested as an alternative to the normal CCTV cameras which need to be monitored 24 hours a day to be effective. Town Clerk John Winchester said the cost of this would be 'prohibitive.'
In both cases the cameras were around £3,000 each and installation would amount to £12,000, but with the new system the only running costs would be the price of a computer, a mobile phone and a regular phone bill.
By making a phone call to the system the camera can transmit pictures over the airwaves to a computer as long as it is connected to the internet.
Mr Winchester said the information recorded digitally and the only drawback was there had not been a test case in the courts yet. This was because with a digital photograph it was quite possible for someone operating the computer to alter the image.
Funding is available from the Home Office for CCTV but bids have to be submitted by June next year.
Mr Winchester told the council members that he was embarking on a professional course on council policy and for one of the modules he could study what this system could do for a town like Okehampton.
'The concept of this system is very good and it would cost a lot less than three guys sitting and watching the monitors over a 24-hour period,' said the town clerk.