Cameras and crime

May 8 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE explosion in numbers of CCTV cameras is one of the most striking phenomena of recent times.

Communities across the land have pleaded for the systems – and in general have got their wish. The use of cameras is now a part of daily life, although they are opposed by some civil liberties groups.

And yet, and yet ...do they really help?

Evidence presented in an Examiner report today suggests they have failed to cut crime despite enormous expenditure on the systems.

Certainly, there are now so many of the cameras that scrutinising the footage produced by them seems to be an overwhelming task.

Questions have to be asked too about the quality of images – we’re all familiar with the grainy and dark picture which has every appearance of having been filmed down an unlit mine.

Little surprise then that Scotland Yard says that CCTV is not a deterrent for many criminals.

A senior detective seems spot-on in his assessment that the network has grown in a piecemeal way, driven by local authorities and the private sector more than by the police.

.

Many people would be happier to see an increase in the number of bobbies on the beat.