[PiN-diskusjon] [Doctorow] Column: CCTV deterrence and the London riots (fwd)

[Thomas Gramstad]

Cory Doctorow om hvorfor videokameraer ikke forhindrer kriminalitet.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:11:57 -0700
From: Cory Doctorow <doctorow at craphound.com>

Subject: [Doctorow] Column: CCTV deterrence and the London riots

My latest Guardian column, "Why CCTV has failed to deter criminals,"
looks at the London riots and the way that rioters were willing to
commit their crimes in full view of CCTV cameras, and what that says
about CCTVs as deterrence. I think that we need to draw a distinction
between having cameras on all the time in case someone commits a crime,
and using cameras at the time that crimes are being committed -- for
example, hooking up a CCTV to a glass-break sensor (possibly configured
so the CCTV buffers and discards video continuously, but only saves the
few seconds before the breakage).

There's a tiny one-way street on the way to my daughter's daycare that
parallels an often crowded main road, and from time to time, local
drivers will get the idea of using it as a high-speed shortcut. There
are two schools in this street, and a lot of bicycle traffic, and I've
lost track of the number of times that I've seen near accidents as
impatient drivers roared down the street.

But the local council haven't installed a CCTV camera there full time.
Instead, when the problem flares up, they stick one of those creepy CCTV
cars at the top of the street and hand out gigantic speeding tickets for
a day or two, until everyone gets the message and the street falls quiet
again. That is, they locate a camera where there is a problem, use it
until the problem is over, and relocate it. They don't watch everyone
all the time in case someone does the wrong thing.
> 
> After all, that's how we were sold on CCTV ? not mere forensics after the fact, but deterrence. And although study after study has concluded that CCTVs don't deter most crime (a famous San Francisco study showed that, at best, street crime shifted a few metres down the pavement when the CCTV went up), we've been told for years that we must all submit to being photographed all the time because it would keep the people around us from beating us, robbing us, burning our buildings and burglarising our homes.
> 
> A year before the Vancouver Winter Olympics, a reporter from a one of the local papers called me to ask whether I thought an aggressive plan to use CCTVs in the Gastown neighbourhood would help pacify the notorious high-crime heroin district. I said that the deterrence theory of CCTV relied on the idea that the deterred were making smart choices about their futures and would avoid crime if the consequences might catch up with them.
> 
> Then I recounted my last trip through Gastown, where the pavements were thronged with groaning and unconscious emaciated addicts, filthy and covered in weeping sores, and asked if those people could be reasonably characterised as "making smart choices about their future."


Why CCTV has failed to deter criminals
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/17/why-cctv-does-not-deter-crime>

- -- 
Cory Doctorow
doctorow at craphound.com

For avoidance of doubt: This email does not constitute permission to add
me to your mailing list.

blog: boingboing.net
books (novels, collections graphic novels, essay collections): craphound.com
podcast: feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast
latest novel: For the Win craphound.com/ftw
latest short story collection: With a Little Help craphound.com/walh

Join my mailing list and find out about upcoming books, stories,
articles and appearances:

http://www.ctyme.com/mailman/listinfo/doctorow

READ CAREFULLY. By reading this email, you agree, on behalf of your
employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from
any and all NON-NEGOTIATED  agreements, licenses, terms-of-service,
shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure,
non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have
entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and
assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and
privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release
me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

Doctorow mailing list
Doctorow at ctyme.com
http://mailman.ctyme.com/listinfo/doctorow