A new report from the University of California at Berkeley on the use of surveillance cameras in San Francisco cast doubt on their usefulness, at least as far as deterring violence crime. The study showed that the surveillance cameras, which are being routinely employed in more and more major cities at traffic lights and other busy city areas, do seem to deter property crime but have little or not effect on crimes involving violence. They also found no reduction in victimless crime such as vice and drug trafficking.

A few negative outcomes were discovered. For example, witnesses to violent crime who reported being in one location when the crime occurred but were observed on the surveillance video to have a slightly different position than they remembered, in several instances had their testimony thrown out by defense attorneys, even though it was clear they did witness the crime. Cameras may not lie, but apparently they don’t prevent robberies or muggings either, and often, although not at all what you might expect,  they even make it harder to prosecute such crimes when filmed.

Related posts:

1. British Cops Reinforced with Digital Cameras
2. RED to Launch Something Big on November 13th?
3. Brother DCP-9045CDN Printer
4. Brother presents 2 new All-In-One Printers
5. Brother MFC-9840CDW Printer