Is CCTV Effective?

London, UK is one of the most watched places on the planet. There are over 1 Million CCTV cameras in London alone, and in 2006 it was reported that there was over 4 Million CCTV cameras in operation in the UK. But are they effective at solving crime?

An internal police report has found that only one crime was solved in London per 1000 CCTV Cameras last year, stating that the million plus cameras rarely help catching criminals. In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers.

“It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent. CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness. It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security.” Says former shadow home secretary David Davis

It is predicted the average person is captured by a CCTV camera 300 times a day, but is this clear breach of privacy and huge expense necessary when its now proven to be so ineffective?

Source: BBC News