The city of London currently has more than 10,000 CCTV cameras, yet they have done little to curb crime. Most can’t even solve a crime after it has occurred, leading many to believe they are completely useless and a huge waste of money.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

“We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of £200million in the last 10 years but it’s not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers.

Thank you! I have been saying this for years. There is no better deterrent to crime than to have a physical body present. That £200 million could have been better spent on human beings who can actually interact with citizens in helping to prevent crime and solve crimes after the fact.

Another suggestion was to spend some of that money on better street lighting, which has also shown to lower crime rates. Like cockroaches, criminals scatter in the light. Too bad we can’t get politicians to do the same.