A study of the capital’s publicly-funded camera network, owned by local councils and Transport for London, found that police are no more likely to solve crime in areas with the most cameras.
In fact, 80 per cent of the boroughs with the highest number of cameras had below average crime-solving rates.
The statistics were issued to the Liberal Democrats and seem likely to reopen the debate over the effectiveness of public CCTV systems.
Party spokeswoman Dee Doocey called for an ‘open debate’ about the role of CCTV in London.
“Too often calls for CCTV cameras come as a knee-jerk reaction,” she said.
“We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of GB pound 200million in the last 10 years but it’s not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers.
“Although CCTV has its place, it is not the only solution in preventing or detecting crime.”
However, there are exceptions that buck the general trend. Hackney, the borough with the highest number of ‘public’ cameras (1484), does have a higher than average success rate with 22.2 per cent of crimes solved.
But the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Sutton and Waltham Forest have less than 100 public cameras each, and still achieve clear-up rates of around 20 per cent.
Advocates believe CCTV’s real power lies in preventing crime in the first place and that, along with features like street lighting, it can help members of the public feel safer on the streets.
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