There has been extensive research on the value of closed-circuit television (CCTV) for preventing crime, but little on its value as an investigative tool.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras are widely used in policing, but that use is controversial. The United Kingdom (UK) government has described CCTV as “vital” for detecting offenders while the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department argued that it is often “invaluable to police investigations”.
On the other side of the debate, the campaign group argued that extensive use of CCTV “poses a threat to our way of life” and that “widespread visual surveillance may well have a chilling effect on free speech and activity”.
Similarly, the American Civil Liberties Union claimed that public CCTV surveillance creates “an almost Orwellian potential for surveillance and virtually invites abuse
Of these potential applications, almost all research attention to date has concentrated on the use of CCTV to prevent crime . Early studies suggested that CCTV was effective at reducing robberies at London Underground stations, although the evaluation methods used had some limitations.
Since then, the subject has received substantial research attention with mixed empirical results. For example, several evaluations have found CCTV to be effective at reducing thefts in car park but others have shown it to have little or no impact on crime in residential areas .
A systematic review of 41 studies concluded that CCTV is effective at preventing some types of crime in some circumstances, but that the evidence suggests it has a more-limited impact than its widespread deployment may suggest.
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There appears to be some disagreement within the police service as to how effective CCTV cameras are in criminal investigations. Several news outlets summarised a report from the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) that appeared to be highly critical of its usefulness. It was reported that “only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images”, although others reported that the 3% statistic applied to all crime .
In reports, it was written that “up to 80 per cent of CCTV footage seized by police is of such poor quality that it is almost worthless for detecting crimes”.
In 2008 less than 1,000 crimes were solved using CCTV despite there being in excess of one million cameras in London.
However, to the present knowledge, the report itself remains unpublished and no information is available on the methods used, nor any more details of the conclusions.
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