Daily Times

There is plenty of evidence that people are not safer because of the presence of CCTV. The incidents are recorded on camera, but continue to happen regularly, increasing the sense of insecurity among public. The law enforcement agencies are always inclined to make use of modern day technology to apprehend criminals, including CCTV system. But, their demand of installing cameras is without the assertion of the benefits of such investment or the law enforcement agencies are less interested in establishing a comparison between the physical presence of police or replacing them with camera.

The people, mainly, residing in the major cities are literally dwelling in a forest of CCTV cameras that watch their every move. The city of Lahore is equipped with latest CCTV system, as the project has been completed with the installation of over 2000 CCTV cameras. A state of the art command, control, and communication system has been established at the Qurban Police Lines in Lahore. The city has been declared as a safe city as far as the law enforcement strategies are concerned to combat crime. Britain is considered having the largest number of CCTV system, one estimate putting the total at 4.2 million, or one camera for every 14 people.

It is obvious to understand that installing CCTV system is an attempt to intrude into the lives of people. Nowadays, their installation is justified by the advocates on crime-fighting grounds, and they argue that majority of the public feel extremely secure if their surroundings are managed and watched over by the CCTV.

On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that people are not safer because of the presence of CCTV. Criminologists have argued convincingly by analysing many studies that money is better invested in improved street lighting and more uniformed police patrols. The effectiveness of cameras as a crime prevention tool is at least questionable, but, surely, be useful in helping to apprehend crooks. Once Det. Chief Inspector Mike Neville of Scotland Yard mentioned that in London, only one crime is solved a year by every 1,000 CCTV cameras. CCTV played a little role in deterring the intention of criminals or protecting the victims, while many of the criminals might have thought twice about committing a crime had there been a policeman around the place of incident.

The question is haunting many law enforcement managers. If CCTV does not stop crime or catch criminals, what are they for? A CCTV system is not a physical barrier. It does not limit access to certain areas, make an object harder to steal, or a person more difficult to assault and rob. But CCTV has many functions. The primary preventive utility is to trigger a perceptual mechanism in a potential offender. It seeks to change offender’s perception, so the offender believes if he commits a crime, he will be caught. It can increase the perceived risk of being trapped in the criminal. In theory, CCTV should provide the capable guardianship necessary to prevent crime, but this concept requires that offenders demonstrate rationality in their behaviour. There is some qualitative evidence that potential offenders who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs may not care or remember that they may be under surveillance. This could be a reason CCTV appears to be more effective in combatting property crime than disorder, and violent offences happened on streets. CCTV may not be a tool to combat public disorder or violent crimes and has less reliability to reduce the fear of crime on streets.

In a second mechanism, CCTV has the potential to reduce crime. The cameras may be able to assist in the detection and arrest of offenders, provided the police respond promptly to any significant incident identified by the camera operators. The criminal justice system can pursue the offenders’ conviction. This can work if imprisoned offenders are prevented from committing further crimes within the CCTV area. The authorities must keep in mind that offenders may soon learn what types of incidents provoke a police response and the speed of that response. The availability of local resources for police is, therefore, a factor in the success of this effort. Then again, the quick response on the part of police heavily depends upon the availability of resources like transport and more officers at the patrol.

The desire to catch an offender in the act is often the rationale behind the placement of CCTV cameras by the police. Undoubtedly, CCTV evidence is convincing, though CCTV’s ability to reduce overall crime levels through detection is less compelling, and arguably a less effective way of impacting crime. For the success of this system, the police must believe arrests are the best way to solve a crime problem. The cameras alone are helpless to protect the public but could aid in apprehending the offenders.

Another consideration in the effectiveness of a surveillance technology is the type of crime to be tackled because CCTV impacts the criminals’ ability to adapt. A CCTV system may reduce the likelihood of robbery at a commercial location or intersections of the roads within the range of the camera; there is plenty of evidence that drug market can continue operation in the presence of CCTV by changing their operating practices. For example, at one location some offenders met and discussed business in the cameras’ presence, but concluded the transaction at another place.

However, a number of benefits beyond the reduction in crime may be accrued from a CCTV system including reduced fear of crime, aid to police investigations, provision of medical assistance, information gathering and diffusion of benefits.

There are some unintended consequences of installing a CCTV system that include a displacement of criminal activity. A CCTV system may also force a criminal fraternity to be more imaginative and to diversify operations by bringing changes in their modus operandi. CCTV system may increase suspicion or fear of crime among the people and they start feeling that the purpose of cameras is to ‘spy on people’. The installation of CCTV cameras can increase reporting of criminal incidents and eventually there would be a noticeable increase in recorded crimes for some types of crime especially minor acts of violence, graffiti and drug offences.

CCTV can be used as a situational crime prevention measure that focuses on reducing opportunity and increasing the perceived risk of being caught. This could be used as strengthening social control and community cohesion through more effective street use.

The relationship between social surveillance and criminal opportunities is consistently a strong theme emerged from the crime statistics. A core assumption of both opportunity and informal social control models of prevention is that criminal opportunities and risks are influenced by environmental conditions that are in interaction with resident and offender characteristics. Installing CCTV is a substantial alteration of the built environment but it does not constitute a physical barrier to crime. However, it can act a catalyst to stimulate crime reduction through a change in the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour of residents and potential offender.

It also depends on how the operators of CCTV identify and detect the incident, the kind of response created and how quick was the response or the response time. Keeping a record of operators’ identification, the frequency of detection and response time of police, time is taken to reach the place of incident, the exact result of the response if any conviction occurred due to response would provide insight into the effectiveness of CCTV system. There would be some strategy to tackle the crime in areas that would become potential sanctuaries for the criminals due to the displacement of offence resulted due to the installation of CCTV in a particular area.

There are few apprehensions regarding the effectiveness of CCTV system as the mainstream police have been assigned to manage the system. There would be visible involvement of IT specialists and highly qualified professional for better management of such a new concept. This project has a potential to prove itself a hub of information for analysis collected from various government agencies, private organisations and individual citizens.

The writer can be reached at malikmasud@hotmail.com