Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

It's an astonishing statistic that is sure to send chills down the spines of freedom campaigners.
In Big Brother Britain there is an incredible one CCTV camera for every 32 citizens, a study has revealed.
The revelation that 1.85 million cameras are watching our every move confirms the shocking extent of surveillance in 21st century Britain.
Coming a day after it emerged tiny drones could be used to spy on Britons, the CCTV study is sure to add fuel to the debate that we have become a Big Brother state.The research involved police community support officers counting every camera in Cheshire and extrapolating the results nationwide to provide a reliable estimate of the level of CCTV surveillance in the UK.
Officers counted 12,333 cameras in the area, according to a study published in CCTV Image magazine, the majority of which were inside premises, rather than facing public street.
The research also found that most CCTV cameras in the UK are likely to be privately owned, with only 504 of Cheshire’s cameras run by public bodies.
After the Cheshire results were extrapolated nationwide, taking into account urban and rural areas and transport networks, the number of cameras was adjudged to be 1,853,681 – enough for one camera for every 32 citizens in the UK.Despite the proliferation of CCTV cameras, police admit that just one crime is solved for every 1,000 cameras.
Deputy Chief Constable Graeme Gerrard, the lead on CCTV for the Association of Chief Police Officers said the latest numbers, based on a map of CCTV systems in Cheshire, were intended to ‘inject more rigorous figures into the debate’ over Britain as a surveillance state.
A widely quoted estimate of 4.2 million cameras in the UK was based on a 1.5km road in a busy shopping district and extrapolated out for the entire UK, he explained.
And the previous estimate that the ‘average Briton is caught on security cameras some 300 times a day was based on a fictional tour of CCTV hot-spots.
However, he admitted: ‘The figure of 1.85m is still a significant number of CCTV cameras.
‘I'm not saying for a minute that this doesn't mean that we don't have a lot of cameras.’
Mr Gerrard confirmed he was surprised to learn of other research which suggested the London underground network houses as many as 11,000 cameras.

Writing in CCTV Image, Mr Gerrard added: ‘Eight years after the 4.2 million figure was first published, we now have research that indicates that the figure is less than half this guesstimate.
‘We also know that unless you make a particular point of visiting as many CCTV hotspot areas as you can, you are unlikely to be captured on CCTV 300 times a day.'
He admitted the latest figures were still estimates, but said they showed the number of CCTV cameras in the UK to be around 1.85 million.
‘And the real figure for the number of times the average person is likely to be 'caught' on CCTV in a day is less than 70 - and most of these will be at your workplace or fleeting glimpses by cameras located in shops’.
However, Isabella Sankey, director of policy at the campaign group Liberty, said the figures would do little to allay concerns about surveillance in Britain.
‘Who cares if there is one camera or 10 on their street if that one camera is pointing into your living room?’ she asked the Guardian.
‘Concerns about CCTV are not a simple numbers game; what's required is proper legal regulation and proportionate use.’

Read More: Dailymail

More about → Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

It's an astonishing statistic that is sure to send chills down the spines of freedom campaigners.
In Big Brother Britain there is an incredible one CCTV camera for every 32 citizens, a study has revealed.
The revelation that 1.85 million cameras are watching our every move confirms the shocking extent of surveillance in 21st century Britain.
Coming a day after it emerged tiny drones could be used to spy on Britons, the CCTV study is sure to add fuel to the debate that we have become a Big Brother state.

The research involved police community support officers counting every camera in Cheshire and extrapolating the results nationwide to provide a reliable estimate of the level of CCTV surveillance in the UK.
Officers counted 12,333 cameras in the area, according to a study published in CCTV Image magazine, the majority of which were inside premises, rather than facing public street.
The research also found that most CCTV cameras in the UK are likely to be privately owned, with only 504 of Cheshire’s cameras run by public bodies.
After the Cheshire results were extrapolated nationwide, taking into account urban and rural areas and transport networks, the number of cameras was adjudged to be 1,853,681 – enough for one camera for every 32 citizens in the UK.Despite the proliferation of CCTV cameras, police admit that just one crime is solved for every 1,000 cameras.
Deputy Chief Constable Graeme Gerrard, the lead on CCTV for the Association of Chief Police Officers said the latest numbers, based on a map of CCTV systems in Cheshire, were intended to ‘inject more rigorous figures into the debate’ over Britain as a surveillance state.
A widely quoted estimate of 4.2 million cameras in the UK was based on a 1.5km road in a busy shopping district and extrapolated out for the entire UK, he explained.
And the previous estimate that the ‘average Briton is caught on security cameras some 300 times a day was based on a fictional tour of CCTV hot-spots.
However, he admitted: ‘The figure of 1.85m is still a significant number of CCTV cameras.
‘I'm not saying for a minute that this doesn't mean that we don't have a lot of cameras.’
Mr Gerrard confirmed he was surprised to learn of other research which suggested the London underground network houses as many as 11,000 cameras.

Writing in CCTV Image, Mr Gerrard added: ‘Eight years after the 4.2 million figure was first published, we now have research that indicates that the figure is less than half this guesstimate.
‘We also know that unless you make a particular point of visiting as many CCTV hotspot areas as you can, you are unlikely to be captured on CCTV 300 times a day.'
He admitted the latest figures were still estimates, but said they showed the number of CCTV cameras in the UK to be around 1.85 million.
‘And the real figure for the number of times the average person is likely to be 'caught' on CCTV in a day is less than 70 - and most of these will be at your workplace or fleeting glimpses by cameras located in shops’.
However, Isabella Sankey, director of policy at the campaign group Liberty, said the figures would do little to allay concerns about surveillance in Britain.
‘Who cares if there is one camera or 10 on their street if that one camera is pointing into your living room?’ she asked the Guardian.
‘Concerns about CCTV are not a simple numbers game; what's required is proper legal regulation and proportionate use.’

Read More: Dailymail

More about → Shocking study reveals UK has one CCTV for every 32 people

America's most crime-ridden cities

The 11 Most Dangerous Cities
Crime rates in the United States have dropped significantly in the last two decades and continue to be on a steady downward trajectory, according to FBI figures. In 1991, there were 758 violent crimes per 100,000 Americans, compared to 2009's figure of 429. Property crime has diminished similarly, and is down to 3,036 per 100,000 people from 5,140 in 1991. Total crime numbers have also decreased over that period, despite population increases; 1.9 million violent crimes were reported in 1991, a figure that in 2009 stood at 1.3 million. Property crime has decreased even further, from 13.0 million incidents in 1991 to 9.3 million in 2009. Of course, crime remains a major problem in some of the largest urban areas, some of which have crime rates that are more than double, triple, or even quadruple the national figure.

An analysis of FBI data shows which cities in the United States have the highest overall incidence of crime, relative to the national rate. Below are the 11 U.S. cities with the greatest crime risk, according to an Onboard Informatics analysis of the most recent seven years of FBI crime reporting data. This data includes property crime, such as burglary and motor vehicle theft, as well as violent crime, like murder and robbery. An index score of 100 is equal to the national crime rate, meaning that Memphis, for example, with an index of 361, has a crime rate more than three times the national average.
Here are the 11 most dangerous cities in terms of crime risk:

                                                           City                                Crime Rate Index

1. St. Louis	530
2. Atlanta	484
3. Birmingham Alabama (tie)	380
3. Orlando (tie)	380
5. Detroit	369
6. Memphis	361
7. Miami	346
8. Baltimore	339
9. Kansas City, Missouri	337
10. Minneapolis (tie)	331
10. Cleveland (tie)	331

Source: Onboard Informatics
Property crime is far more prevalent than violent crime in all of these cities, as with the rest of the nation, and nearly all of these 11 cities have also experienced significant drops in property crime in recent years. St. Louis, the city with the highest crime risk, has made major strides in the years covered by this index figure, with a property crime rate that has dropped from 13,187 per 100,000 residents in 2003 to 8,331 in 2009. In particular, the city's motor vehicle theft rate dropped by more than half in those seven years. Meanwhile, several of the cities among the top 11 experienced fluctuations or even growth in violent crime rates. Cleveland, for example, saw murder and aggravated assault rates grow from 2003 through 2009, though forcible rapes and aggravated assaults on the whole declined. Memphis saw the largest violent crime rate jump of the group, up to 1,806 per 100,000 residents in 2009 from 1,577 in 2003.
Of course, the above index figures do not provide a full picture of crime in any given city. For example, Birmingham and Orlando share an index rating of 380, but a statistical snapshot shows that the two cities deal with their own unique crime patterns. In 2009, Orlando had a greater incidence of larceny and theft than Birmingham, which itself experienced more forcible rapes and robberies.
It is also important to note that the above figures give an overall view of crime in these cities. Several other cities that have high rates of particular crimes are not among the 11 cities with the worst crime rates. For example, New Orleans and Richmond, Virginia had the highest murder rates in the country in 2009, according to the FBI. Likewise, Anchorage, Alaska, and Abilene, Texas, which are not among the cities with the most overall crime, still had the second- and third-highest rates of forcible rapes in 2009, behind No. 1 Minneapolis. 
Read More: Usnews

 

More about → America's most crime-ridden cities