Closed-circuit television surveillance (CCTV)

Definition: Monitoring of activities in public or private spaces conducted through the use of video cameras that transmit to limited sets of monitors.

Significance: As a tool of crime deterrence and detection, closed-circuit television technology is used extensively to monitor movement in public areas, despite the serious questions this form of surveillance raises regarding civil liberties. With improvements in video technology and growing fears of terrorism around the world, increasing numbers of law-enforcement agencies are employing closed-circuit television surveillance.

Combating crime committed in public locations has long been an important law-enforcement priority, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) has become an integral part of the technologies used in this effort. CCTV surveillance of public movements is especially pervasive in England, where hundreds of thousands of video cameras are already mounted and the numbers continue to grow, requiring an enormous expenditure of public funds. Other European countries that are heavily involved in CCTV monitoring include Ireland, France, Belgium, Finland, and Scotland. The use of CCTV surveillance in England has attracted widespread attention in high-publicity cases, such as the 2005 London subway bombings, when several of the suspects were caught after they appeared on CCTV cameras.

Methods and Results

Logistically, the monitoring of the images captured by CCTV cameras is conducted remotely. In England, monitoring is conducted from central stations, which are frequently found in police headquarters. The personnel who monitor CCTV feeds may be police or civilians. Across departments, variations are found in terms of the staff time allotted to live monitoring or post hoc monitoring of surveillance tapes and in terms of the periods of time for which the tapes are kept.

The empirical results of the implementation of CCTV surveillance have been mixed, ranging from reports of crime reduction as large as 90 percent to reports of crime increases up to 20 percent. Any interpretation of crime expansion must be made in terms of two basic goals of CCTV use: crime deterrence and crime detection. An increase in crime might actually be viewed as a success if the presence of CCTV enhanced crime detection.

In terms of property crime, the studies that have found the most positive results have reported long-term reductions in burglary, car theft, and general theft in CCTV areas, with concomitant increases in non-CCTV zones. CCTV may have a displacement effect, whereby the total volume of crime remains fairly constant but much of it is shifted to areas that lack video monitoring. Other studies have found that reported crime reductions in areas with CCTV surveillance could not be isolated from reductions that might have come about because of the large amount of publicity given to the CCTV program itself. Some property crime studies have reported no substantial crime reductions as the result of CCTV surveillance, but it is possible that the monitoring had an impact by holding down projected crime increases.

In studies of elderly populations, CCTV tapes were found to provide records useful for identifying suspects (a task in which elderly persons are typically weak). In another group of studies, CCTV reduced the volume of some crimes, particularly those the commission of which took long enough to be recorded by cameras, such as auto theft. However, the frequency of relatively “quick” crimes, such as burglary and shoplifting, increased. Studies have also found a “fading effect” associated with the implementation of CCTV surveillance—that is, crime rates decline initially but then begin to rise again, after the novelty of the monitoring wears off and its deterrent impact on would-be offenders recedes. Researchers have also found it difficult at times to separate the effects of CCTV monitoring from other simultaneous changes in the areas being studied, such as better lighting or overall security.

Little research has addressed the effects of CCTV implementation on crime trends for violent offenses such as robbery and assault. Because violent offenses are generally more impulsive than property offenses, violent crime is less amenable to preventive measures, but CCTV surveillance could allow police to intervene faster when violent offenses take place.

Public Responses

Researchers have also looked at the effects of CCTV surveillance on fear of crime. In some studies, the majority of the people who were surveyed thought that the use of CCTV would reduce crime in their jurisdictions, but actual fear levels did not decline. Results of such studies have varied depending on the populations involved and the exact crimes and camera locations. In a survey of elderly persons residing in sheltered housing, for example, reduced levels of fear of burglary were found, as the respondents widely believed that the cameras made stranger entry into their homes more difficult.

Studies have found that fears of crime are reduced more by CCTV cameras located in parking lots than by the presence of cameras in shopping centers or on the streets. A sex effect has also been noted regarding fear of crime, with some studies indicating that women are particularly fearful at night in bus and train stations even with CCTV monitoring. Subjects in one study felt that CCTV surveillance was superior to other police crime detection strategies, but they also said that they preferred retaining police foot patrols in order to feel safer, because this facilitated quicker law-enforcement response if needed in any given situation. Some surveys have also found that being aware of the presence of CCTV cameras can make the public feel more afraid of crime rather than less.

CCTV surveillance is appealing in terms of its potential to deter and detect crime. It may also have beneficial effects in terms of reviving businesses located in high-crime areas and increasing the numbers of guilty pleas made by defendants who know their crimes were caught on tape. The use of CCTV surveillance raises several concerns regarding civil rights, however. Some critics have asserted that members of minority groups are disproportionately targeted for observation and that the police or others may use the monitoring videotapes for purposes that exceed the original scope of the surveillance. Members of the public may not always know when they are being monitored, and the actions seen on the tapes (which include images of varying clarity and lack auditory information) may sometimes be misinterpreted. Nevertheless, the use of CCTV surveillance is growing steadily, and the refinement of video technology is expected to become increasingly important in helping law-enforcement authorities meet their crime deterrence and investigatory goals.

Bibliography

Cerezo, Ana. "CCTV and Crime Displacement: A Quasi-experimental Evaluation." European Journal of Criminology 10.2 (2013): 222–36. Print.

Gill, Martin, ed. CCTV. Leicester: Perpetuity, 2003. Print.

Gill, Martin, Anthea Rose, Kate Collins, and Martin Hemming. “Redeployable CCTV and Drug-Related Crime: A Case of Implementation Failure.” Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 13.5 (2006): 451–60. Print.

Goold, Benjamin. “Open to All? Regulating Open Street CCTV and the Case for 'Symmetrical Surveillance.'” Criminal Justice Ethics 25.1 (2006): 3–17. Print.

Newburn, Tim, and Stephanie Hayman. Policing, Surveillance, and Social Control. CCTV and Police Monitoring of Suspects. Portland: Willan, 2002. Print.

Norris, Clive, and Michael McCahill. “CCTV: Beyond Penal Modernism?” British Journal of Criminology 46 (2006): 97–118. Print.

Piza, Eric L., Joel M. Caplan, and Leslie W. Kennedy. "Analyzing the Influence of Micro-Level Factors on CCTV Camera Effect." Journal of Quantitative Criminology 30.2 (2014): 237–64. Print.

Séverine, Germain. "A Prosperous 'Business': The Success of CCTV through the Eyes of International Literature." Surveillance & Society 11.1/2 (2013): 134. Print.