Tech Shout!

According to an analysis, Surveillance Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in London are not helpful enough in solving crime in the city, read a story in This is London.

Though London has as many as 10,000 publicly funded CCTV cameras in public spots, merely 5 crimes have been solved, stated Dee Doocey, a spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats political party on the London Assembly, which the elected body that decides transport and policing policy for London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London itself.

With the help of the numbers attained from the London boroughs, the Metropolitan Police Service and public transport authorities through Freedom of Information Act requests, the Liberal Democrats compared the amount of crime cases solved in each borough with the number of CCTV cameras deployed there.

“Our figures show that there is no link between a high number of CCTV cameras and a better crime clear-up rate,” Doocey said. “Boroughs with thousands of CCTV cameras are no better at doing so than those which have a few dozen.”

CCTV’s supporters normally speak about its significance in averting crime, instead of actually solving it. Even though the cameras throughout London’s public transport system made it possible for police officers to identify within a few days those responsible for the July 7, 2005, tube-train bombings in the city, ironically the cameras did nothing to prevent the attack.

In the past 10 years, London’s CCTV cameras have cost taxpayers there around $200 million (US$400 million), stated Doocey, making the topic of the city’s policing even more debatable.

This is London, also lists the below mentioned figures that further blur the effectiveness of CCTV cameras:

There are now 10,524 CCTV cameras in 32 London boroughs funded with Home Office grants totaling about £200million.

Hackney has the most cameras - 1,484 - and has a better-than-average clearup rate of 22.2 per cent.

Wandsworth has 993 cameras, Tower Hamlets, 824, Greenwich, 747 and Lewisham 730, but police in all four boroughs fail to reach the average 21 per cent crime clear-up rate for London.

By contrast, boroughs such as Kensington and Chelsea, Sutton and Waltham Forest have fewer than 100 cameras each yet they still have clear-up rates of around 20 per cent.

Police in Sutton have one of the highest clear-ups with 25 per cent.

Brent police have the highest clear-up rate, with 25.9 per cent of crimes solved in 2006-07, even though the borough has only 164 cameras.