A lot of people in law enforcement seem to want to place cameras all over the place so they can watch people and 'take a bite out of crime.' However, all that spying on the people is failing to produce any results or increase in public safety.


CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police.

By Owen Bowcot
The UK Guardian, May 6, 2008

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

.....

Use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor, according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit. "CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure," Neville told the Security Document World Conference in London. "Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? [They think] the cameras are not working."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1

So according to that article, the problem is that the police aren't going to get the videos to use them and that people aren't afraid of the videos because they think the cameras aren't working (and probably know the police aren't using them).

Sounds like to me the problem isn't with the cameras, it's in people not knowing how to use a new system.

Also, how does the UK's relatively new system compare to, say, the US, where CCTV has been in more common use for a while?

Somebody's watching me by Rockwell

See it on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu1RP34FLXU

"Every step you take; every move you make...I'll be watching you."

Watching the Detectives - Elvis Costello

Private Eyes - Hall & The Moustache

Freeze Frame - The J. Geils Band

Austin's new police chief is pushing for more surveillance cameras in the 6th Street area.

Clearly, he doesn't read the Guardian.

(Or listen to 80's music for that matter.)

I lived in England for 4 1/2 years (2002-2006) and heard of several cases in which CCTV was very helpful in tracking a victim's movements prior to being abducted or attacked. Knowing more about where and what the victim was doing can only help in an investigation.

All these cameras are in public places -- not spying on the private lives of people in private places. If you're out in public, you lose a bit of privacy anyway. I always felt just a bit safer (perhaps wrongly according to the article) knowing that if something happened to me or my kids, the cops would maybe be able to figure it out, as I know they did in the nearby town of Ely.

I'm not sure we want to see everything that happens on 6th Street. But, put more cameras on 6th street and stream it straight to the internet - now that will help keep Austin weird.