According to 2021 research, the amount of CCTV cameras in London is approximately 691,000, or roughly 1 for every 13 people. Of those, 23,000 are owned and operated by public bodies. That includes Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police, City of London Council and local authorities. London Underground alone has almost 16,000 cameras.
Amazingly, they say that the average Londoner is captured on a CCTV camera 300 times a day!
The College of Policing’s Crime Reduction Toolkit suggests that CCTV is “associated with a statistically significant decrease in crime”. According to one study, crime decreased by 13% in places with CCTV, compared to places without it. It also revealed that certain types of crime are affected by the presence of CCTV: drug-related crime decreased by 20%, and vehicle and property crime by 14%.
However, violent crime was not affected by the presence of cameras. In these cases, video footage instead becomes an invaluable tool to track down suspects afterwards. Recent events such as the Charlie Hebdo attack, the Boston Marathon bombing and the 7/7 attacks in London all relied heavily on CCTV footage to identify and track down suspects.
Based on the studies the toolkit consulted, they conclude that CCTV’s effectiveness depends on how and where it is used.
So, how Does CCTV Work to Reduce Crime?
The statistics above show that the presence of cameras do have an effect on crime rates. While it’s hard to measure exactly why the presence of cameras reduces crime, it’s likely that the following reasons are factors:
- Increasing the perceived and actual risk of getting caught
- Reassuring and encouraging the public to use areas covered by CCTV cameras, making it more difficult for crime to take place unnoticed
- Cameras along with signage can assist in making people feel safer in crime prone areas.
- Reducing the number of opportunities for crime to take place
How and where does CCTV work best?
The same study showed that crime reduced by 37% overall in car parks with CCTV cameras installed, and by 12% in residential areas. For crimes related to vehicles and property, cameras have been proven to reduce crime.
It is not just the mere presence of cameras that deters criminals, it’s also how they are monitored by security staff. Active monitoring (which is where cameras are actively watched by trained staff for criminal activity). was shown to reduce crime by 15% more than CCTV systems without active monitoring.
This is because security staff and monitor and proactively manage criminal activity in real time – effectively stopping it in its tracks. This type of security is effective in all kinds of scenarios and industries, particularly when cameras are enhanced with intelligent video analytics, which help operators to identify genuine incidents whilst filtering out false alarms.
When combined with other security measures, such as improved lighting, perimeter fences and signalling, video surveillance was shown to reduce crime by an impressive 34%.
The combination of new HD quality with low light vision, coupled with the new AI technology that can recognise human form means that CCTV has finally reached a point that people can comfortably install cameras knowing that they will get the results they aspire for.
