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- I've heard there's a fake Large Hadron Collider trying to lure in gullible scientists. It's a real con-CERN.2012/02/04
- Got to do an essay on which Olympic event is the easiest, but it's so obvious I'm not sure what I'll write. There's nothing to discus!2012/02/04
- TIL It turns out that TIL stands for 'This Is Lies' #themoreyouknow2012/02/04
- Horror film night with Beyoncé. She didn't like my choice & smashed up my DVD player. "If you liked it you should have put 'The Ring' on it"2012/02/03
- Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people #duh2012/02/03
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory? Or is that a deliberate repetition of power?
And yet I’ll bet crime in that part of town is ridiculously low.
…Why are you doing this?
A bet? How much do you want to bet, MrGBH? Because you’ll lose. I know it is frequently *claimed* in the press that CCTVs reduce crime statistics, but the thing is that all the people who say that are either lying or simply haven’t bothered to actually check the facts, and many of them have careers or reputations or financial interests that they want to advance. Don’t believe me?
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5B347%5D=x-347-61925#3
> “In a report to the Scottish Office on the impact of CCTV, Jason Ditton, Director of the Scottish Centre for Criminology, argued that many claims of crime reduction are little more than fantasy. “All (evaluations and statistics) we have seen so far are wholly unreliable”, The British Journal of Criminology went further by describing the statistics as “….post hoc shoestring efforts by the untrained and self interested practitioner ”
> “Three recent criminological reports (Home Office, Scottish Office and Southbank University) have discredited the conventional wisdom about the cameras effectiveness. In a report to the Scottish Office on the impact of CCTV, Jason Ditton, Director of the Scottish Centre for Criminology, argued that the claims of crime reduction are little more than fantasy. “All (evaluations and statistics) we have seen so far are wholly unreliable”, The British Journal of Criminology described the statistics as “….post hoc shoestring efforts by the untrained and self interested practitioner.” In short, the crime statistics are without credibility.”
Note that it’s not just Privacy International (who obviously have an agenda on this matter) saying this; they’re reporting the claims of independent and unbiased auditors and professionals in the field.
So, just because some copper or CCTV salesman makes a claim in a press release, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually true, and just because some shoddy journalist takes it at face value and writes it up as a story without checking the facts doesn’t make it any truer, and any time anyone’s actually looked into it in detail, with real statistics and maths and everything, it has turned out not to be.
“CCTV makes you safer” is like every other urban legend: persistent, plausible, often repeated by those who seemingly ought to know – but it’s not actually true.
I just thought, DaveK, that you should know that I checked the link you supplied. It sent me to an FAQ by Privacy International (Whom I have only vaguely heard of, so I don’t know much about their reliability (Either for or against)). I read the stuff about ‘can CCTV reduce crime?’ and from what I can tell, even they’re saying it’s worth it (Since criminals caught on it tend to plead guilty).
However, I would like to point out that their quotes attacking CCTV didn’t have any evidence. Following one, about a book called ‘Big Brother’ published by Simon Davies in 1996, I couldn’t find anything helpful at all. I’ll be checking with my local library tomorrow to see if they can get it, so that I can see how verifiable his claims are.
And I’d like to end on an anecdote. When I was working in a shop at Southend (In England) a robber attempted to swipe some computer games from behind the counter. Myself and a fellow worker both attempted to restrain him, but failed, ending up with only his jacket and a shoe. I also had a good enough look at him for the police to check local CCTV for him. He was caught and imprisoned, thanks to CCTV.
I know there’s nothing to back that up because it’s anecdotal, but that’s just an example of a guy who’ll be thinking twice before committing a crime in a high-CCTV area.
Wanna bet non-christians don’t fit into the world depicted except as cordwood?