May 7, 2008

CCTV and databases do not cut crime

The UK have spent billions of pounds on the network of CCTV systems that appear on every street corner, in fact there are around 4.2 million CCTV systems that are active around the country at the moment and still this figure is set to rise.

But despite all of the money and a new database called the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office, (Viido) the effect on crime has been minimal, actually the figure being stated is that just three per cent of crimes are solved with the help of CCTV.

The Viido system is set to change all of this by improving the way that CCTV is used and making it a tool for the police in line with fingerprinting and DNA studies. The system will also be used to publish pictures of wanted people on the internet and as the UK have more CCTV cameras than any other country in Europe, and then there is likely to be a lot of pictures.

Source [Times]