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The article claims that the evidence security cameras reduces crime is debatable, but the linked article is merely whether the presence of cameras reduces crime
by oh_sigh 3y ago
The article claims that the evidence security cameras reduces crime is debatable, but the linked article is merely whether the presence of cameras reduces crime. A more important, direct effect of the cameras would be helping evict criminals from the housing, which surely would have an effect on the amount of crime happening there.
- bobthepanda 3y agoIt is pretty safe to say that cameras do not prevent crime by themselves; they are so common that everyone has gotten used to them, reducing the deterrent effect; and the response times from watching CCTV are too long to prevent anything in the moment. Preventing crime has more to do with social and architectural decisions, like expanding visibility, removing chokepoints, and promoting more activity near a given space. The problem is that you can’t demolish all the public housing built poorly in the US and replace it at a reasonable cost.
- oh_sigh 3y agoI agree completely, but another good way of preventing crime is to remove habitual criminals from the space. Cameras can help do that by providing evidence of their crimes for their removal.
- bobthepanda 3y agoCameras have existed in public housing for multiple decades at this point. If the theory is that this is a process that works, it’s not effective or scalable enough given that public housing remains dangerous. The new thing is that AI makes all of this less tedious, but I’m skeptical this will put a serious dent in the problem.