I Spy With My Little CCTV Camera....

"Actively monitored CCTV schemes evidenced significant reductions in [property] crime, whereas passively monitored schemes were not associated with reductions in crime."
"This finding provides evidence against the use of CCTV as a stand-alone tactic."
Research team meta-analysis

"There is this panacea view of cameras [closed-circuit television -- CCTV] that has caught on. Especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, here in the U.S., and subsequent bombings in the London underground. It has led to the view: 'Let's just put cameras up and that will solve everything'."
"The setting where cameras are most effective is in car parks. Surveillance cameras do not deter individuals from committing acts of violence. [
"[In Wales it was found that CCTV allows police to respond quickly.] They found that the severity of violence was lessened [as police break up fights[ or get there before a knife comes out or before some other weapon was involved. So the emergency room data showed that the severity of injuries was much less severe. [But] you can't say that the cameras did that. It was how the cameras were operationalized."
Brandon Welsh, professor of criminology, Northeastern University, Boston

LONDON — A bank of television monitors displays images captured by a fraction of London’s CCTV camera network within the Metropolitan Police’s Special Operations Room. Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

CCTV cameras have been technologically developed far beyond the simple cameras used so familiarly by private enterprise; each shop, large or small that keeps tabs on customers' actions while in or around the premises used by millions of people daily, in an effort to reduce the issues of shoplifting or other types of disorderly disruption. Their modern cousins can now 'talk' to one another linking to follow a car or a person down the street block to block. Gunshots can be detected and instant alarms sent automatically.

"Computer vision technology" built into the newer versions are capable of picking up visible "images of concern" including firearms, fugitive vehicles or untoward actions. The analysis produced by Professors Welsh of Northeastern and David Farrington of Cambridge University, published in the journal Criminology and Public Policy set out to assess the practicality and usefulness of closed circuit television cameras in reducing crime. What they concluded was that it all depends. On whether the cameras are used in tandem with monitors, people to scan the television and react.

They also found that the cameras make little difference in the commission of violent crimes, but can make a difference in property crimes. They can help protect businesses and homes from break-ins. On the other hand, the fact that cameras are present must be well known to act as a deterrent. It isn't quite clear why the cameras are not successful in stopping violent crimes but the finger does point to passively monitored schemes; CCTV as a stand-alone tactic is not a huge success story.

"CCTV is generally most effective in deterring acts of property and vehicle crime, and has virtually no impact on deterring violent crimes. CCTV is more effective in terms of crime deterrence in Britain, than North America."
"Unless publicity and media coverage of CCTV cameras is maintained, then any initial deterrence effect tends to fade with time."
"Police largely view CCTV as a useful time-saving tool that supports their work in a variety of ways [since pictures help to identify criminals]."
Government of Scotland agency summary

"[The popularity of surveillance cameras represents] a paradox: video surveillance becomes widespread, in more and more numerous social and national spaces, while its effects in terms of crime prevention and/or law enforcement and community reassurance are not demonstrated."
"[Agencies find new ways to use surveillance technology] and progressively acquire its multiple uses that then become justification for its use, fuelling the buy-in process."
Severine Germain, Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, France

Cameras are known on occasion, however, to aid in the conviction of criminals being prosecuted by the law. The Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 is one example, where cameras recorded the Tsarnaev brothers at the scene of the crime with CCTV cameras capturing an image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev before the bombs went off at the Marathon. The conviction of the Tsarnaev brothers owed greatly to the evidence captured within the video.

Screengrab of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shortly before the Boston Marathon bombs went off on April 15, 2013. AP / jpg

A high school surveillance camera captured the luring of a child as she was led away when school was let out by a woman in 2009 who with her boyfriend, raped and murdered the little girl in Woodstock, Ontario. The kidnapping and murder of Tori Stafford represented a horribly sordid atrocity targeting a helpless child. The presence of that camera recording Terri-Lynne McClintic gaining the trust of the child and leading her to her death, helped convict her and her lover.

The prevalence of CCTV cameras is seen in a positive light by the public, who feel reassured at their presence. Despite which, those who have been violent, in interviews explain that exiting a club drunk one is unaware of the presence of cameras and prone to simply surrender to the urge of violence; it has no deterrent effect on people unaware because of alcohol and reacting to violent stimuli. And then there is the reaction of the civil liberty organizations, who decry the presence of cameras as an infringement on privacy rights.

A victim is attended to as a man was gunned down at about 9:30pm in the Byward Market near the Moulin De Provence Cafe. Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia