One camera for every three people: Does this actually deter crime?

Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. Image by Hustvedt, CC3.0.

Ever feel like you’re being watched? Often you are. With the UK government publishing its Crime and Policing Bill last month to tackle retail crime, new research from Techreport.com shows that in one city, there is one closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera for every three people. Does this reduce crime?

In the West Yorkshire City of Wakefield, there are over 26,000 cameras, and with a population of 79,000, there are about 335 cameras per 1000 people, more than any other UK city. The important calculation is assessing camera numbers against population levels.

CCTV’s deployment has facilitated significant growth in state surveillance, a substantial rise in the methods of advanced social monitoring and control. Is this of societal benefit? How is the right to privacy squared against crime reduction success?

The survey reveals the top ten to be (based on cameras per 1000 people ratios):

1. Wakefield
2. Bradford
3. Leeds
4. Manchester
5. London
6. Birmingham
7. Edinburgh
8. Glasgow
9. Coventry
10. Sheffield

Wakefield has 134 crimes per 1000 people, but substantially more eyes on the public than in other cities. Compared to Nottingham, which many consider has a reputation for crime, it has 130 crimes per 1000. This means Wakefield has around 10 times more cameras per 1000 people than the East Midlands city.

London has the most CCTV cameras in the UK, but with a population of over 7.5 million, it works out to be around 91 cameras per 1000 people, ranking it the fifth most amount per 1000. Ahead of the Capital are the three Yorkshire cities of Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds, and the Lancastrian city of Manchester.

However, the number of cameras does not correlate with the number of crimes. Leeds has the highest number of crimes per 1000 people – 151 – and 134 cameras per person. But Bradford, with 138 cameras per person has just 59.6 crimes per 1000.

Other cities with high crime rates also don’t necessarily have a large number of cameras. Sheffield, Cardiff, and Leicester all have crime rates of over 115 crimes per 1000 people but have around 55 – 65 cameras per 1000.

Former Police Detective and body language expert, Darren Stanton, says: “There is no correlation between the number of CCTV cameras and crime. For example, Nottingham, my hometown, is a very violent city. No matter which area you go to, we’ve seen murders and other violent crimes, even in affluent areas, regardless of the number of cameras”.

He concludes: “It’s not about having an abundance of cameras, but what you do with them. There is absolute lawlessness in large parts of the UK…I don’t feel having these numbers of cameras is proportionate to preventing crime anymore, because council workers reviewing them could call the Police to say there is a robbery in progress, but we don’t seem to have the resources to dispatch to pursue crimes.”