CCTV surveillance might not curb violence in town centers, but it does increase police detection rates, and reduce the severity of violence, a new study indicates.
Researchers analyzed police reports of street violence in five British cities with CCTV monitoring and five without from 1995-99, cross-referenced with emergency room records of assault treatments in the same locales.
The study, published in the research journal Injury Prevention, found that the number violent attacks requiring emergency treatment in towns with surveillance decreased by 3 percent; the number of police-detected assaults increased 11 percent.
In towns without surveillance, police detected-assaults remained the same, but the number of people who needed emergency care after sustaining assaults increased by 11 percent.
The researchers claim CCTV does not act as a deterrent because police detection rates did not fall during the study.
