The number of council-owned CCTV cameras has trebled in ten years.

The UK is increasingly being watched by Big Brother, according to its namesake group, which has revealed that there are almost 60,000 CCTV cameras on UK streets controlled by local councils.

Big Brother Watch – a group funded by the Taxpayers Alliance – has revealed in its latest report that 418 local authorities in the UK now control nearly 60,000 CCTV cameras on the streets, treble the figure reported ten years ago.

According to the report, Portsmouth and Nottinghamshire councils control the most cameras with 1,454 each. The latest crime figures for England and Wales, show that both of these areas have seen overall crime drop steadily over the past five years. 

While many people will be reassured by the figure, Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch said people would rather see a bigger police presence on the streets.

He said: “Local councils across Britain are creating enormous networks of CCTV surveillance at great expense, but the evidence for the ability of CCTV to deter or solve crimes is sketchy at best.

“With crime on the increase, it is understandable that some people want more CCTV, but we would all feel safer with more police on the beat, there would be fewer crimes and those crimes that do occur would be solved faster.”

According to a 2005 Home Office report, CCTV has been “oversold” as a solution to tackling crime. The report concluded “It was rarely obvious why CCTV was the best response to crime in particular circumstances.”

In August 2009, an internal report released by the Metropolitan Police under a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed that for every 1,000 cameras in London, less than one crime is solved per year.

However, in 2002 the then Home Office Minister John Denham said: “increasingly CCTV plays an important role not just in deterring crime, but in detecting it.”

A report from the National Association for the Criminal Rehabilitation of Offenders (NACRO) in 2002 said that although CCTV had little effect on crime against the person, it was useful in preventing property crime including car theft and burglary.

Big Brother Watch has raised several pertinent issues which argue against the widespread use of CCTV. For a full list click here

This latest report raises several arguments; however should it be taken as a definitive reason to eradicate the tool. Though a costly way to do so, if CCTV is working even as a minor deterrent is it not best to have it than not? Even if there were extra uniformed police on the streets to tackle crime they don’t have the capacity to cover every road at all times, which CCTV does. Can we not have the two systems working side-by-side to ensure criminals are caught and prosecuted with optimum evidence?

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that the government could spend its budget better by putting more police on the streets and installing more street lighting? Or do you feel happier with the knowledge that there is more CCTV on the streets?