Burnley Cctv Evaluation

This study examines the effectiveness of a closed circuit television (CCTV) system installed in Burnley, Lancashire in northwest England. It considers both the outcomes and mechanisms through which they were brought about. Three areas are identified: "focal" beats, within which the CCTV cameras were installed; "displacement" beats, which were continuous to the focal beats; and "other" beats, comprising the remainder in the police division. With regard to both overall recorded crime and separate types of offences, the research finds significant decreases in the focal area, no spatial displacement, and some diffusion of benefit to the displacement area. There was some dilution of impact over time. There was no evidence that the proportional effect of CCTV changes by time of day, according to periods when surveillance with cameras would be more or less difficult. Crime fell more steeply as the first cameras were installed, with diminishing increases in effect as more were put in place. These patterns suggest that the impact of cameras is not simply a result of surveillance effects per se. Other preventive mechanisms were also triggered. THE NATIONAL CONTEXT CCTV is one of the fastest growing sectors of the security industry, estimated by the end of the century to account for close to 30% of all Crime Prevention Studies, volume 10, pp. 225-249 226 — Rachel Armitage et al. security system sales (Cully, 1996). The popularity of the method is very great, although the wisdom of many of the purchasing decisions may be called into question (Hearnden, 1996). The U.K. Home Office has actively promoted the use of CCTV for the surveillance of public areas, and expenditure on the tool has recently run at the astonishing level of three-quarters of total Home Office expenditure on crime prevention (Koch, 1997). Competitions for CCTV funding have survived the change of government, albeit with an apparently increased emphasis on mobile systems. There is, at first sight, impressive evidence that CCTV may reduce crime. This has been brought together by Home (1996), and his summary table is modified and presented below as Table 1. Whilst the figures are at first sight impressive, three points must be made. First, the comparisons tend to be of a simple before-after design, and there is emerging evidence — in Glasgow, Scotland at least — that such comparison obscures more complex trends. Second, the evaluations vary in their competence. Third, they are not helpful in suggesting how CCTV achieves its effects. Short and Ditton (1995, 1996) are particularly critical of the standard of CCTV evaluation. The points they make include the following: • The evaluations have often not been carried out by independent researchers. • The before and after periods are not long enough, or else are not seasonally matched. • Crimes are aggregated, masking contrary trends in different crime types • Appropriate comparison areas are seldom used as a baseline. • The nature of the attendant publicity is never mentioned. • Percentage falls, rather than absolute numbers, are often reported. • Displacement is rarely mentioned. The second issue concerns why CCTV has the effect it does. Pawson and Tilley (1997) offer a number of possibilities, which the present writer has extended into the following list: • "Caught in the act" — perpetrators will be detected, and possibly removed or deterred. • " You've been framed" — CCTV deters potential offenders who perceive an elevated risk of apprehension. • "Nosy porker" — CCTV may lead more people to feel able to frequent the surveilled places. This will increase the extent of natuBurnley CCTV Evaluation — 227 ral surveillance by newcomers, which may deter potential offenders. • "Effective deployment" — CCTV directs security personnel to ambiguous situations, which may head off their translation into crime. • "Publicity" — CCTV could symbolise efforts to take crime seriously, and the perception of those efforts may both energise lawabiding citizens and/or deter others. • "Time for crime" — CCTV may be perceived as reducing the time available to commit crime, preventing those crimes that require extended time and effort. • "Memory jogging" — the presence of CCTV may induce people to take elementary security precautions, such as locking their car, by jogging their memory. • "Anticipated shaming" — the presence of CCTV may induce people to take elementary security precautions, for fear that they will be shamed by being shown on CCTV. • "Appeal to the cautious" — cautious people migrate to the areas with CCTV to shop, leave their cars, and so on. Their caution and security-mindedness reduce the risk. • "Reporting changes" — people report (and/or police record) fewer of the crimes that occur, either because they wish to show the effects of CCTV or out of a belief that "the Council is doing its best" and nothing should be done to discourage it. Is it academic self-indulgence to be concerned with the mechanism whereby something worked? Shouldn't one just be pleased that it apparently did? In fact, it is crucial to know the mechanism. Only knowing it will enable the reproduction of success in new schemes, the maintenance of success in existing schemes, and the costefficiency of CCTV operation generally. In short, CCTV has a central place in current crime control technology; such evaluation as has been done suggests substantial effects. However, there is good reason for remaining cautious about the nature and extent of these effects, and, most important, for exploring more thoroughly why CCTV worked. 228 — Rachel Armitage et al. Table 1: The Success of CCTV? Burnley CCTV Evaluation — 229