c space, at every transport hum, inside every shop and office, in schools, stadiums, colleges and hospitals, it covers every major highway and every major public event.DOES CCTV WORK?
So what's been learnt in these 15 years of public scrutiny? Has CCTV increased public protection? Well, the short answer is that CCTV is proving a very useful and valuable tool for a whole range of different applications-except for the one thing it was originally installed to achieve: crime prevention. All of the research conducted thus far, and there have been several academic studies, indicates that CCTV's power to deter (or displace crime to areas without CCTV)-just through the fact of tis being there - is quite limited. It can have a deterrent effect on a few specific types of crime (for example, car crime in controlled areas such as multi-story car parks). But research by the UK Home Office and others, shows that the mere fact of CCTV surveillance does not prevent many serious crimes. Those involving violence, or crimes of vandalism, especially those where the perpetrator has been consuming alcohol. The reason for this is obvious, if you think about it. People who indulge in crime of passion have no time to take into account that they are being filmed. People who are drunk tend not to think rationally about the consequences of their actions. And of course, any would be terrorist or suicide bomber probably doesn't care less one way or the other if his captured on CCTV is now so all pervasive in the UK, that it is pretty much impossible for the career criminal to avoid. They must work within its gaze, because they can't work beyond it. However, luckily for all those who ear their living through CCTV, the measure has come to be acknowledged as an exceptional, even indispensable, tool for a number of other purposes. CCTV has turned out to be very good indeed for:
INVESTING CRIMES:
Nearly every major police investigation now involves seizure of all relevant CCTV image data, and a great many criminal prosecutions now include CCTV evidence. Even in the case of a recent double-murder that took place inside the victims' house, CCTV evidence from street cameras was used to show that eh perpetrators then used the victim's cash till cards following the crime- a critical piece of evidence helping to sway the jury to bring in a guilty verdict. CCTV evidence is proving to be enormously persuasive with both juries and, more importantly, with the arrested criminals themselves. If the analysis was to be done (which unfortunately it hasn't been) then CCTV would be shown to be paying for itself, probably several times over, in terms of the time and money saved to the police, criminal justice system and courts through its power to encourage criminals who are shown CCTV images of their crimes to opt for early guilty pleas. There has also been a separate benefit of CCTV. It has uncovered a whole new layer of crimes taking place in society's public places, which hitherto would have gone unnoticed, or unreported. Police now view CCTV as the 'third forensic discipline', rivaling DNA and fingerprint evidence in importance. CCTV data is now routinely recovered following any incident (and increasingly following more minor incidents), and it is often now handled and precessed by specialist police CCTV evidence teams, operating within newly established regional forensic CCTV image labs. A particular advantage with CCTV is that, because cameras run 24/7, investigators can view the events leading up to an incident.
For example, following the London terrorist bombings in July 2005, security services were able not only to identify the bombers, but also discover the background to the crimes and view the rehearsal that the bombers made in the weeks prior to the attack - giving the security services important new clues about the background to the attacks and the individuals involved.
Intelligence Gathering:
CCTV is now frequently used to investigate those who are believed to be planning criminal activities. This surveillance is either carried out overtly or covertly. Often this will involve the deployment of temporary CCTV cameras for the duration of the operation. for this, the authorities use either mobile CCTV (Vehicle-based cameras) or relocatable CCTV (cameras that can be temporarily mounted on lamp posts). In May this year, in a bizarre overt example of this type of investigation, police used Body Worn Video cameras (miniature cameras that are worn, usually either on headgear or on uniform jacket) to follow the activities of a group of suspected burglars in Essex. Police notified the individuals concerned by letter that they would be videoed, and then they followed them with cameras. Burglaries in the area during the period of the operation fell by half.
Aiding response to incidents:
The third way in which CCTV has proved valuable is though its ability to help police and other responding services, including paramedics and social services, to provide appropriate response to incidents. Monitoring staff in CCTV control rooms can provide a 'live' assessment of the type of incident, allowing responders to roaster response accordingly. If the event escalates, staff can inform police who will take necessary action to perhaps increase resources being devoted to the incident. Authorities responding to an incident are also reassured, knowing they are being watched on CCTV. There are documented instances where a police person, seeking to control public disorder, has been prevented from calling for back-up, but has been seen in difficulties by CCTV staff, who have then been able to quickly notify police to send reinforcements. CCTV staff can also quickly review CCTV data in the lead-up to an incident, even as it is happening, and communicate directly with police attending the scene, to ensure that police on the ground questions the right people, or to ensure that key witnesses do not wander away from the scene.
So what's been learnt in these 15 years of public scrutiny? Has CCTV increased public protection? Well, the short answer is that CCTV is proving a very useful and valuable tool for a whole range of different applications-except for the one thing it was originally installed to achieve: crime prevention. All of the research conducted thus far, and there have been several academic studies, indicates that CCTV's power to deter (or displace crime to areas without CCTV)-just through the fact of tis being there - is quite limited. It can have a deterrent effect on a few specific types of crime (for example, car crime in controlled areas such as multi-story car parks). But research by the UK Home Office and others, shows that the mere fact of CCTV surveillance does not prevent many serious crimes. Those involving violence, or crimes of vandalism, especially those where the perpetrator has been consuming alcohol. The reason for this is obvious, if you think about it. People who indulge in crime of passion have no time to take into account that they are being filmed. People who are drunk tend not to think rationally about the consequences of their actions. And of course, any would be terrorist or suicide bomber probably doesn't care less one way or the other if his captured on CCTV is now so all pervasive in the UK, that it is pretty much impossible for the career criminal to avoid. They must work within its gaze, because they can't work beyond it. However, luckily for all those who ear their living through CCTV, the measure has come to be acknowledged as an exceptional, even indispensable, tool for a number of other purposes. CCTV has turned out to be very good indeed for:
INVESTING CRIMES:
Nearly every major police investigation now involves seizure of all relevant CCTV image data, and a great many criminal prosecutions now include CCTV evidence. Even in the case of a recent double-murder that took place inside the victims' house, CCTV evidence from street cameras was used to show that eh perpetrators then used the victim's cash till cards following the crime- a critical piece of evidence helping to sway the jury to bring in a guilty verdict. CCTV evidence is proving to be enormously persuasive with both juries and, more importantly, with the arrested criminals themselves. If the analysis was to be done (which unfortunately it hasn't been) then CCTV would be shown to be paying for itself, probably several times over, in terms of the time and money saved to the police, criminal justice system and courts through its power to encourage criminals who are shown CCTV images of their crimes to opt for early guilty pleas. There has also been a separate benefit of CCTV. It has uncovered a whole new layer of crimes taking place in society's public places, which hitherto would have gone unnoticed, or unreported. Police now view CCTV as the 'third forensic discipline', rivaling DNA and fingerprint evidence in importance. CCTV data is now routinely recovered following any incident (and increasingly following more minor incidents), and it is often now handled and precessed by specialist police CCTV evidence teams, operating within newly established regional forensic CCTV image labs. A particular advantage with CCTV is that, because cameras run 24/7, investigators can view the events leading up to an incident.
For example, following the London terrorist bombings in July 2005, security services were able not only to identify the bombers, but also discover the background to the crimes and view the rehearsal that the bombers made in the weeks prior to the attack - giving the security services important new clues about the background to the attacks and the individuals involved.
Intelligence Gathering:
CCTV is now frequently used to investigate those who are believed to be planning criminal activities. This surveillance is either carried out overtly or covertly. Often this will involve the deployment of temporary CCTV cameras for the duration of the operation. for this, the authorities use either mobile CCTV (Vehicle-based cameras) or relocatable CCTV (cameras that can be temporarily mounted on lamp posts). In May this year, in a bizarre overt example of this type of investigation, police used Body Worn Video cameras (miniature cameras that are worn, usually either on headgear or on uniform jacket) to follow the activities of a group of suspected burglars in Essex. Police notified the individuals concerned by letter that they would be videoed, and then they followed them with cameras. Burglaries in the area during the period of the operation fell by half.
Aiding response to incidents:
The third way in which CCTV has proved valuable is though its ability to help police and other responding services, including paramedics and social services, to provide appropriate response to incidents. Monitoring staff in CCTV control rooms can provide a 'live' assessment of the type of incident, allowing responders to roaster response accordingly. If the event escalates, staff can inform police who will take necessary action to perhaps increase resources being devoted to the incident. Authorities responding to an incident are also reassured, knowing they are being watched on CCTV. There are documented instances where a police person, seeking to control public disorder, has been prevented from calling for back-up, but has been seen in difficulties by CCTV staff, who have then been able to quickly notify police to send reinforcements. CCTV staff can also quickly review CCTV data in the lead-up to an incident, even as it is happening, and communicate directly with police attending the scene, to ensure that police on the ground questions the right people, or to ensure that key witnesses do not wander away from the scene.
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