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: Grits for Breakfast

A cost-benefit nightmare: One crime solved per 1,000 surveillance cameras

I've argued many times before that surveillance cameras in public spaces provide little crime fighting bang for the buck, often citing Britain's example. Now out of the UK comes this news, via the BBC, showing how little crime fighting benefit that nation has seen from its massive investment in CCTV:Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed.The internal police report found the million-plus cameras in London rarely help catch criminals.In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers.David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: "It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).