Surveillance Cameras in London: Maybe Only One in a Thousand Solve Crimes, But at Least They All Keep an Eye on People
Britain's security camera system not such an efficient crime-buster, the BBC reports:
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…..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."
He added: "CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness.
"It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security…."
Nationwide, the government has spent £500m on CCTV cameras.
A spokesman for the Met said: "We estimate more than 70% of murder investigations have been solved with the help of CCTV retrievals and most serious crime investigations have a CCTV investigation strategy."
And I guess the capstone excuse:
A Home Office spokeswoman said CCTVs "help communities feel safer".
Jacob Sullum on Britain's surveillance state, from Reason magazine's August/September issue.
