A public house CCTV has good pictures of pick pockets stealing but the police are not rushing to view the tape.

Graeme

Hornchurch

Graeme Stenson, Hornchurch, Essex

Just about every Junior Police officer in the country has known this for years. Most private schemes are based on old cheap cameras using worn out video tapes. The Council run schemes have mostly be subverted to prosecute Parking offenders.
CCTV has a place in crime detection, well behind effective perimeter control, door control and direct Identification methods.
It is NOT a panacea solution as portrayed by many unthinking Politicians of ALL parties.

Barry PURKIS, Havant, England

Britain is turning into Big Brother.

We should remove the majority o CCTV cameras and place them only where they actualy help the police catch and / or identify criminals!

Alex Jones, Windsor,

Whilst i agree with Paul M from Hull's comments, i must say that he needs to take a trip down to London where the reverse is the case. CCTV Cameras only operate at their peak efficiency b\w the hours of 7am - 7pm which is when they are used for revenue generation, monitoring bus lane's, parking infringements, stopping in box junctions et al. Outside those hours they are turned off and completely useless. I agree whole-heartedly with the report, they are used improperly and are frankly mostly useless in the fight against crime. When i say "they" i am referring to the cameras operated by most London councils and TfL.

Andrew Ezea, Hackney, LONDON

I'm a serving PC in a north of England force and work as an Interviewer in a city centre station. I deal primarily with low-level crime and "nuisance" so Public Order offences, shop-theft and the like are my bread and butter. Our town centre is well covered by the Council's CCTV system to which we have ready access within hours of any incident and in my experience it is an invaluable tool in many of our investigations. In dealing with a street fight involving ten or fifteen persons , verbal accounts and written statements can only take you so far in deciding who the suspects are. The availability of good quality CCTV footage simplifies this and can often make all the difference. The same goes for shop-theft where I can show the suspects the footage of themselves committing the crime and expect the almost inevitable "full and frank confession". It's not perfect or useful in every instance but it really is a great help in the detection and prosecution of offenders.

paul M, Hull, UK

More control-freakery. Don't worry if it doesn't work, just install it.

Terry Dell, Weybridge, UK

Who would have thought!

Farrukh, Woking, UK

You don't say!

nonplussed, london,

Are you paying attention Winston ?

Pete Balchin, Solicitor , Bristol, UK

I'm sure most of the tax paying population will be thrilled to hear that the money they give is used in such a manner. You have unfortunately come to expect this from some arms of councils, but for the police to waste the money spent (and it is a waste dear officer) and not enhance our security, seriously questions the morals of such action.

Andy B, London, UK

Cameras don't prevent crime - if they did Britain would be virtually crime free, and now their only real use in trying to identify criminals after the event is shown to be useless 80% of the time.

Rather than inanimate CCTV cameras how about the really novel idea of having a few policemen patrolling our streets and shopping centres.

John, aylesbury, bucks

Four million cameras but all in the wrong places? Seems hard to believe. Not being used to monitor crime? Well, those doing the monitoring don't know when or where a crime is going to be committed, but if they see one in progress they'll monitor it, surely. Uncertainty about where the cameras are? Surely it's obvious the police should have access to all necessary data. OK, the system may need improvement, but Mr Davis's sweeping statement hardly seems justified. And I trust no-one is saying that discouraging cars from using bus lanes is wrong.

Barry, Wallington, UK

So what else is new?

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Nagano