

 New Orleans Mayor Wants to Scrap Surveillance Cameras - wglb
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/10/new_orleans_scr.html

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VBprogrammer
Living in the UK (I'm pretty sure we have one of the highest levels of CCTV
monitoring in the world) and also having worked as a CCTV operator for a
summer job (surprisingly fun), my opinion is that they are yet another tool
their to keep honest people honest and do little for those intent on
committing crimes.

In my summer job I was watching over a section of a shopping mall which was 1
mile from end to end, my area was about 1/4 of that and I was the only pair of
eyes watching around 40 cameras. Recorded images are practically useless
unless you are deliberately watching someone, the camera is almost always
pointing in the wrong direction otherwise.

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jdp23
Repeated studies show that surveillance cameras almost always fail to deter or
prevent crime (with the exception of parking lot vandalism). Wouldn't it be
nice if cities took this into account before spending a ton of money and law
enforcement time?

