Assessing the impact of CCTV

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Home Office (nor do they reflect Government policy). RDS is part of the Home Office. The Home Office's purpose is to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are p roperly balanced and the protection and security of the public are maintained. RDS is also part of National Statistics (NS). One of the aims of NS is to inform Parliament and the citizen about the state of the nation and provide a window on the work and perf o rm a n c e of government, allowing the impact of government policies and actions to be assessed. T h e re f o re – R e s e a rch Development and Statistics Directorate exists to improve policy making, decision taking and practice in support of the Home Office purpose and aims, to provide the public and Parliament with information necessary for informed debate and to publish information for future use. Foreword This study represents a major advance in our knowledge about CCTV. No previous research has examined in such detail the issues faced in ensuring effective operation of CCTV systems. The authors have undertaken a painstaking analysis of the effectiveness of systems, both with respect to the impact on crime as recorded by the police and wider measures based on victimisation rates, fear of crime and other information collected via local surveys. The authors have demonstrated that while CCTV can be a powerful tool in combating crime, it has to be recognised that the contexts in which CCTV systems operate are very variable, as are the systems themselves. CCTV can appear to be a simple measure to implement, but this is far from being the case in reality. This report, together with its associated reports, provides invaluable information to assist in developing the full potential of CCTV systems. i Acknowledgements There are a lot of people who in different ways have contributed to this research. We would p a rticularly like to thank all those individuals from the projects under evaluation for their cooperation. Many individuals from a wide array of agencies gave a lot of time and although we cannot name them we do recognise the enormous contribution that collectively they made. Without them this project would not have been …