CCTV: is it working?

Published: 4 June 2010

• A LOT of public money has been spent installing CCTV cameras to make us safer, but how many of them actually work? I was shocked to hear that a crime lead could not be followed up because of the “poor image quality” of CCTV footage at Archway Tube station (Travel card mystery after pond death, May 28).

Aside from the privacy issues that surround CCTV, is it not a basic requirement that cameras should do the job they have been installed for?
Recently, Havant Borough Council led a review into the 76 CCTV cameras covering its town and discovered that 32 were not justifying their £3,000-a-year maintenance costs and turned them off.

In Cambridgeshire, the local police have ruled that council CCTV systems “do not meet Home Office recognised specifications”.

It is one thing to ask for more CCTV as a palliative measure, but it is another to make sure cameras are working to required standards.

Maybe Islington Council should look at whether our CCTV cameras are capable of keeping us safe. If not, turn them off and save us some money.
TIM NEWARK
Islington TaxPayers’ Alliance