Do you think CCTV works?

There are around four million CCTV cameras in Britain yet only a fraction actually solve any crimes.

Earlier this week a private memo from the Metropolitan Police found that fewer than one crime is solved by every 1,000 closed circuit television cameras.

Part of the problem is that the quality of the footage is not good enough to be used in court.The other difficulty is the time it takes to analyze just a day’s worth of footage.

Do you agree? Do you find CCTV cameras are any good at preventing crime?

Or do people intent on breaking the law just ignore them?

Do you think politicians have often used CCTV cameras as an excuse not to pay for more bobbies on the beat?

Have you ever been a victim of crime, which you thought would be cleared up by CCTV cameras, only to find that the camera was not working, or the quality of the images was too poor?

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Comment by ApexCCTV on November 11, 2009 at 2:18pm: I agree with Erik.

The number of criminals actually caught on tape and identified may be lower than we would like, but the number of prevented crimes, due to the presence of cameras and alarms, would be quite impressive, I'm sure, if we actually had a count.

As quality increases and cost continues to decrease, for decent-quality surveillance equipment, it will be easier for us professionals to convince, for the lack of a better word, homeowners and small businesses to purchase security systems that will be able to ID criminals, rather than simply deter them.

Comment by Erik Johnson on September 25, 2009 at 12:40am: I am a big believer in CCTV. There is no doubt it makes it more difficult for people to get away with a crime. If a criminal pulls into a neighborhood with an intention to commit a crime I am sure they will drive right by the house that has CCTV cameras mounted and hit a house with out cameras. Why take the added risk. If a CCTV camera can stop just one crime or catch one criminal I am all for it! The one statistic you can't count is how many crimes did not happen because the criminals looked up and saw they were on camera!