Cameras are always around us, and the trend shows no signs of decreasing. Police agencies in New York and nationwide are installing cameras in high crime neighborhoods and property managers are using them to deter crime in apartment complexes. But, how effective are they at actually reducing crime? The answers to that are quite mixed.
A new study out of New York University evaluated the presence of cameras (and other security devices) in two fairly high crime neighborhoods in the city. What they found was that there was little evidence pointing to a reduction in crime.
According to this article from Jennifer Lee at the New York Times, police several years ago claim they saw a drop of 35% in the crime rate around public housing complexes after cameras were installed there. Unfortunately, this report she cited was very outdated and it would be interesting to see if the housing police still believed this were the case, 3 years later. [Read More...]