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The increase in CCTV has not caused a siginificant decrease in crime

Owen Bowcott reports in The Guardian that CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police.

A senior police officer confirms what I’ve suspected for a long while that the massive increase in the number of CCTV cameras has not seen a corresponding decrease in crime.

Use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor, according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit. “CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure,” Neville told the Security Document World Conference in London. “Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It’s been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV. There’s no fear of CCTV. Why don’t people fear it? [They think] the cameras are not working.”

Presumably the criminals think the cameras do not work because they are able to get away with their crimes in full view of them. However the general public have a great deal of faith in the ability of CCTV to cut crime because they have been sold on the idea by the politicians and the police.

With the differing perception of the effect of CCTV the increase in number might have an effect to increase crime because people become more complacent in a heavily surveilled area believing they are safe from criminals.

By Matt Wharton

Matt Wharton is a dad, vlogger and IT Infrastructure Consultant. He was also in a former life a cinema manager.

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