Page "Closed-circuit television" Paragraph 22

The results from the above 2009 “ Public Area CCTV and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis ” conducted by Walsh and Farrington, are somewhat controversial.

Earlier similar meta-analysis completed by Welsh and Farrington in 2002 showed similar results: a significant decrease in car park crime ( 41 %), and a non-significant decrease of crime in public transit and public places.

This study was criticized for the inclusion of confounding variables ( e. g. notification of CCTV cameras on site, improved street lighting ) found in the studies analyzed ( including car park studies ).

These factors could not be teased apart from the effect of CCTV cameras being present or absent while crimes were being committed.

Thus, a combination of factors might be important for the decrease in crime not just the CCTV cameras.

The 2009 study admitted to similar problems as well as issues with the consistency of the percentage of area covered by CCTV cameras within the tested sites ( e. g. car parks have more cameras per square inch than public transit ).

There is still much research to be done to determine the effectiveness of CCTV cameras on crime prevention before any conclusions can be drawn.