The BBC News looks at a new report from the British government that has determined that video surveillance, aka CCTV, is not as useful in the fight against crime as was previously thought (CCTV 'not a crime deterrent'). After studying nearly two dozen UK and US CCTV programs, the study can only concude that "CCTV reduces crime to a small degree." According to the BBC, "A second report on the impact of street lighting considered 13 schemes, and concluded that better illumination could be a cheap way of cutting illegal activity, especially in crime hotspots." It is not that video surveillance can't be useful in certain locations and situations, but "crime-prevention" schemes that recommend placing surveillance cameras everywhere in public says more about government officials' desire to invade the public's privacy then their desire to reduce crime. One might also note how expensive these systems are. The UK is spending 75% of its crime prevention funds on a program that only reduces crime to a small degree. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Not that this hasn't been pointed out before (again from the BBC) (CCTV 'fails to reduce crime'). [via Zem: Weblog]