CCTV – the placebo effect

It's always encouraging to discover that not every politician is blind to the fact that CCTV has problems as well as virtues. 

As detailed over at the Burton Mail in an admittedly hyperbolic statement reflecting my own experience as a criminal barrister:

Labour councillor Gordon Rhind, speaking at a meeting of the council … said he did not think the technology would secure convictions.

He said: “In my experience of CCTV, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) won’t prosecute unless the offender is looking straight into the camera, wearing a T-shirt with their name and address on it.

“But I’m all for anything that makes people in Swadlincote and South Derbyshire feel safer.”

Emphasis added.

By Alex Deane