1,000 CCTV solved 1 crime

This is defintely not a surprise to us, especially when it come to hit and run incident, where despite the number of CCTV in the area of incident, police claim not to have enough evidence;

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Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8219022.stm

Hello, first post - kinda nervous after seeing how harsh u guys can be!

I'm from up norf, I've a story about CCTV. In principle hate the goddam things but once they saved my ass so that conflicts my views.

I was on the slash with a mate in Darlington. We were from out of town and didn't have a clue how to get around. To cut a long story short, end of the night we got jumped by 12 fucking idiots intent on stomping our swedes in. Luckily, I managed to stay on my feet long enough to hear the sound of the babylon swooping in to our rescue. My m8's plan of pretending to be knocked out didn't do him any favours! Turned out they clocked the whole thing on CCTV. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we would have been put in a coma or worse. As it was, we were both in hospital with bust teeth, ribs etc.

So CCTV could well have saved my life!

Still, they didn't catch the bastards so no crimes were solved.

Just read this article. When I lived on Hanbury Street I cmplained to the
Filth about a cctv camera that pointed directly into my kitchen window.
They said they wouldn't move it as it was a crime solving tool. When
We were robbed through said window they said the camera didn't work.
Fuck em.

There have been several savage attacks caught on CCTV, but none had sufficient detail to identify the attackers which is odd... as the technology can pick up a number plate from serious distance!

One of the very first digital images used in press was the still from the Jamie Bulger murder, two children leading a smaller child away. this was iconic and since then we have seen stills of 7-7 bombers getting on the underground, Boris nearly getting taken out by a wayward lorry and countless street violence/stabbings.
You can only hope it acts as a deterrent, if these tools see CCTV stills all over the red tops and CCTV warnings all over the high street they might just think twice

In their defence it's pretty hard to predict where crime will take place and their policy for storing and reviewing footage is baised towards their needs... not ours. thats life

Hello, first post - kinda nervous after seeing how harsh u guys can be!

I'm from up norf, I've a story about CCTV. In principle hate the goddam things but once they saved my ass so that conflicts my views.

I was on the slash with a mate in Darlington. We were from out of town and didn't have a clue how to get around. To cut a long story short, end of the night we got jumped by 12 fucking idiots intent on stomping our swedes in. Luckily, I managed to stay on my feet long enough to hear the sound of the babylon swooping in to our rescue. My m8's plan of pretending to be knocked out didn't do him any favours! Turned out they clocked the whole thing on CCTV. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we would have been put in a coma or worse. As it was, we were both in hospital with bust teeth, ribs etc.

So CCTV could well have saved my life!

Still, they didn't catch the bastards so no crimes were solved.

Shheeet! that sounds rough man, i can't stand this group attacking mentality. fkrs should man up and fight like a man. i'd make a point of remembering one of their faces.. just the one and keep an eye open for him. see how hard he is on his own. CNTS!

*"A Home Office spokeswoman said CCTVs "help communities feel safer""

*Hmmm, the perception of 'safety' rather than the reality then.......

'Community' sounds nice and cosy doesn't it...everyone looking out for each other, taking care of each other..........pah!

i'd make a point of remembering one of their faces.. just the one and keep an eye open for him. see how hard he is on his own. CNTS!

Mmmm yes, might have worked if I hadn't had so many beers. Ironic thing was that I was doing a lot of Muay Thai at the time and one on one I would most likely have kicked their ass.

@Roxy maybe they suspected you of culinery crimes? deep fried mars bars and the like.

I've been knocked off my bike by a car right next to a camera, that wasn't pointing the right way!

And digged in the face by some nutter in town with 4 cameras around and non could ID him. I had just smashed his wing mirror off though so I'm not bitter about it.

The detail on CCTV is dreadful.

I used to run a bar that had the highest incidence of bag/laptop theft in London, and would often show people the theft on the blurry black and white footage.

Whilst you could see what was happening the footage was too indistinct to actually ID the thief- the best you could do would be to give a description of what they were wearing, and that only in black and white.

CCTV can only very rarely "solve" a crime in terms of identifying who did it- normally only when you have managed to catch the suspect and can marry up their clothes/size etc with the footage, and even then it's open to interpretation.

As bifter points out it can be used to alert police to crimes that are occuring, but that requries a large budget as people watching camera's 24/7/365 requiring paying, somewhere to sit, someone to cover them when they need the lavatory etc.

However as Pip points out they are fantastic at spotting number plates- with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) you can largely automate the process of fining motorists for speeding/RLJing/box junction offences, hence the proliferation of such camera systems.

ANPR as a pattern recognition is so much easier than facial recognition.
For facial recognition you need to take two distinct points (typically the eyes) and analyse the distance from those eyes to each of the key points on the face (chin, lips, nose, ears etc etc) then reduce these to vector points and find a matching pattern. it's very accurate needs a very good resolution to start with i.e US passport photos on entry... you know where they are going?!

Lucky for us the GVT find fining motorists for "crimes" such as speeding more important than violent street crime

but on CSI Las Vegas they can pick out credit card numbers though windows?

Are you trying to tell me the CSI series are a lie!!!!

You'd need to up the resolution on existing camera systems by an order of magnitude (possibly several) to get to a point where facial recognition would work, and a £2.99 baseball cap would still fox it

And that still does not solve the largest problem in relation to bag theft- the children used are below the age of criminal responsibility, the uncles/fathers/cousins who manage the children stay outside and take the loot when the children emerge.

^That is why I don't trust children hit them with a big stick.

And that still does not solve the largest problem in relation to bag theft- the children used are below the age of criminal responsibility, the uncles/fathers/cousins who manage the children stay outside and take the loot when the children emerge.

How else am I supposed to earn money??

Japan - Stores sharing shoppers’ faces

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/04/12/editorials/stores-sharing-shoppers-faces/#.U0zx4vm0dpE

When I was bike-jacked at knifepoint in front of an impressive array of night vision enabled CCTV cameras they were still unable to pick out the faces of the people involved. The policeman investigating that crime told me that those cameras were pretty much the best that are being installed now days...unable to pick out a face at night from 60 feet.