UK Home Office releases research on CCTV effectiveness

Privacy International

28/02/2005

The full report is available on the Home Office website.

Relevant extracts are below.

"Out of the 13 systems evaluated six showed a relatively substantial reduction in crime in the target area compared with the control area, but only two showed a statistically significant reduction relative to the control, and in one of these cases the change could be explained by the presence of confounding variables. Crime increased in seven areas but this could not be attributed to CCTV. The findings in these seven areas were inconclusive as a range of variables could account for the changes in crime levels, including fluctuations in crime rates caused by seasonal, divisional and national trends and additional initiatives."

"A number of quantifiable aspects of systems, which could have explained the impact measured were investigated and it was found that certain types of system were more effective than others:

Systems installed in a mixed category of areas (e.g. car parks, a hospital and various other areas covered by one system) displayed the most encouraging results in terms of reduction in crime, particularly in car parks.
Town centre and residential systems showed varied results, with crime going down in some areas and up in others.
Residential redeployable schemes appeared to show no long-term reduction in crime levels. However, the cameras were dealing with short - term problems , which require sensitive measures to detect the impact of the cameras."

"Impulsive crimes (e.g. alcohol-related crimes) were less likely to be reduced than premeditated crime (e.g. theft of motor vehicles)."

"Violence against the person rose and theft of motor vehicles fell in the target areas in accordance with national trends in recorded crime."

"Respondents rarely changed their behaviour following the installation of CCTV: across the areas surveyed only from two to seven per cent visited places they had p reviously avoided. This is substantially fewer than the 15 per cent of pre - implementation respondents who thought that CCTV would encourage them to visit places they avoided."

The presence of CCTV did not discourage people from visiting places. Only one per cent of respondents said they avoided places once CCTV had been installed."

"The proportion of respondents happy or very happy about having cameras in their area declined in nine areas following their installation; in five of these the reduction was statistically significant. However, the level of support of CCTV remained high at over 70 per cent of the sample in all but one area."

Concerns regarding the implication for civil liberties decreased slightly following the implementation of CCTV. Whereas 17 per cent of respondents expressed such concern prior to its installation, this declined from two to seven percentage points post CCTV installation."

<< Back

Email us at privacyint@privacy.org.
Call on +44 (0)208.123.7933.
Privacy Policy - About PI - Support PI