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A Taormina

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7384843.stm

Speaking at the Security Document World Conference in London, Det Ch Insp Neville, the head of the Met's Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido), said one of the problems was that criminals were not afraid of cameras...Although Britain had more cameras than any other European country, he said "no thought" had gone into how to use them.

No, criminals are not afraid of cameras, nor are they afraid of imprisonment, for that matter.

Surveillance cameras in Britain are highly conspicuous. Theoretically, routine surveillance should deter crime. In fact, it doesn't, because criminals know they can't be reliably identified without considerable expense and effort. Now officials are introducing a database to help compile and use surveillance data to increase convictions.

Traditional policing relies on simple, common sense foundations like good community relations and sensible security precautions. Surveillance is an attempt to provide more information to the police that fails because:

• It provides more information than is useful, necessary, or can be processed
• It distances police from the community, lulling them into a sense that cameras are doing their "beat" work. In fact, walking the beat is as much about building trust as observing the community. And observation is more than video capture.
• It debases civil society, subjecting everyone to surveillance regardless of status or criminal record, treating everyone as equally undeserving of trust. Citizens subject to constant surveillance come to view police and government as pervasive and intrusive, diminishing trust in authority.

Technology and bureaucracy are often applied to social problems with disappointing results, not because the technology or bureaucracy is at fault, or is implemented incorrectly, but because countermeasures don't solve problems, they just alter the results. More efficient use of cameras may deter crime, or more likely divert crime, but they are no substitute for good policing.

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Created 28 weeks 4 days ago